
{■Jass 
Book 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



Essays in Western History 




GEORGE ROGERS CLARK 

From a copy by Edzvards of J arris's portrait; the copy being in possesion 
of the Wisconsin Historical Society 



How George Rogers Clark 
Won the Northwest 

And 

Other Essays in Western History 

By 
Reuben Gold Thwaites 

Author of **Down Historic Waterways/' "On the Storied 

Ohio," "Daniel Boone," etc.; Editor of "The 

Jesuit Relations," " Hennepin's Travels," etc. 




Chicago 
A. C. McClurg & Co, 

1903 



THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS. 

Tv«o Cowce Redsved 

}rr ;9 1903 

CownwowT wnrr 
I0LAS9 flL, XXa No. 



CO 



•PY 8. 



Copyright 
By a. C. McClurg & Co. 

A.D. 1903 



F47(> 
.T5'4 



Published October 3, 1903 



•X-''- 



UNIVERSITY PRESS • JOHN WILSON 
AND SON • CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A. 



TO 

MY COLLEAGUES AND FRIENDS 

THE STAFF OF THE 

WISCONSIN HISTORICAL LIBRARY 



Preface 



THE majority of the eight papers contained 
in this volume were first delivered as 
lectures ; and later, in a modified form, were 
printed either in popular magazines or in the 
Wiscojtsin Historical Collections. For the 
present publication they have been radically 
revised and brought down to date — indeed, 
some of them, especially the opening article, 
have been entirely rewritten and bear small 
resemblance to the originals. Owing to the 
different occasions for which they were pre- 
pared, there is lacking a uniformity of treat- 
ment; it is hoped, however, that this variety 
of form, as well as the somewhat wide range 
of topics, may be found acceptable. 

There is more cohesion in this collection 
than may at first appear. The stories of 
Mackinac and La Pointe and the account of 
Early Lead Mining give us glimpses of the 
old French regime, the idyllic period in the 
history of what we now know as the Middle 



vili Preface 

West. Upon Braddock's Road, we witness an 
incident in the march of the British in their 
fateful onslaught upon French possessions in 
the continental interior. In their turn the 
British army were ousted by American col- 
onists through the Winning of the Northwest 
by George Rogers Clark. The Division of 
the Northwest into States of the Republic 
followed in due course, the story of their re- 
spective boundaries being a curious chapter in 
our history. The Black Hawk War was the 
last serious Indian uprising in the Middle 
West ; and its close marked the beginning of 
extensive immigration into both Illinois and 
Wisconsin. Some account of that gentle 
scholar, Lyman Copeland Draper, and the 
now famous Draper Manuscripts — the richest 
collection extant of original sources for the 
study of Western history — would seem fitting 
conclusion for a series like the present. 

R. G. Thwaites. 
Madison, Wis., September i, 1903. 



Contents 



I 

How George Rogers Clark won the North- 
west Page 

A vast hunting-ground 3 

The king's pleasure ignored 5 

The inrush of settlers 6 

Lord Dunmore's War 6 

Kentucky settled 7 

Lieutenant-Governor Hamilton 8 

"The hair-buying general" 9 

Kentucky raided 10 

) George Rogers Clark 10 

^' French hamlets 12 

Frontier forts 13 

Creole militiamen 14 

Life among the Creoles 14 

Centres of British influence - 17 

Clark's project 18 

Raising volunteers 19 

The backwoodsmen 20 

The flotilla 22 

At the Falls of the Ohio 23 

Desertion 24 

A picked company 24 



X Contents 

How George Rogers Clark won the North- 
west {continued') Page 

The march to Kaskaskia 25 

A picturesque Hero Tale 28 

The capture of Kaskaskia 30 

" An excess of joy " 32 

Father Gibault 33 

Cahokia 34 

A new difficulty 35 

Drilling recruits 36 

" Our friends the Spanyards " 37 

The tribesmen confused . 38 

Savage friends 39 

Hamilton's war-party 40 

Vincennes taken by Hamilton 40 

A scare at Kaskaskia 42 

Clark uneasy 44 

Vigo's information 45 

Forestalling the enemy . 46 

"Inward assurance of success" 47 

A difficult march 48 

The " drowned lands " 48 

-s^ Fatigue and hunger 49 

Wallowing through the bog 50 

" Hard fortune ! " 51 

V The man of iron 52 

A frightful crossing ^t, 

Hamilton still unconscious 54 

Clark's letter to the villagers 54 

A ruse 56 

The attack on Vincennes 57 

Clark's warning 59 

Terrorizing the enemy 59 



Contents xi 

How George Rogers Clark won the North- 
west {continued^ Page 

Clark demands unconditional surrender . . 60 

The surrender 61 

An heroic achievement ^^ . 

Illinois a Virginian county 64 

Belated reinforcements 64 

Results achieved ds 

The Detroit project 66 

Clark's power wanes 67 

Jefferson's interesting proposition .... 67 

Clark and Genet 69 

Clark's later years 70 x 

Importance of the conquest T^ iX 

y Effect on the treaty of peace 71 X 

II 

The Division of the Northwest into States 

Washington's suggestion 75 

Jefferson's plan 77 

Ordinance of 1787 79 

The famous boundary article 80 

Erection of Indiana Territory 82 

Admission of Ohio 84 

Erection of Michigan Territory ^^ 

Michigan-Ohio boundary 89 

Erection of Illinois Territory 93 

No Man's Land 94 

Illinois's northern boundary 95 

Michigan spreads westward 9^ 

Dissatisfaction west of Lake Michigan . . 97 

Protracted agitation 99 



xii Contents 

The Division of the Northwest into States 

{contmued) Page 

Erection of Wisconsin Territory .... 102 

105 
108 
108 
no 



Wisconsin's southern boundary 
Iowa detached from Wisconsin 
Wisconsin's northwest boundary 
An international dispute . . . 



Ill 

The Black Hawk War 

Partisan misrepresentations 115 

Treaty of 1804 116 

The old Sauk village 118 

Black Hawk 119 

Aids Tecumseh 122 

Bitterness against Americans 123 

Encroachment of squatters 123 

Black Hawk stubborn J25 

White Cloud, the Prophet 127 

The whites threatened 129 

The Hawk coerced 130 

The Menominee massacre 131 

Bad advice 132 

British Band recruited 134 

Early trails 134 

Frontier settlements 136 

Character of settlers 137 

Ready for an Indian war 138 

Illinois invaded 139 

Shaubena's services 140 

Troops called out 141 

Stockade forts 142 



Co7itents xiii 

The Black Hawk War {continued^ Page 

Atkinson organizes the army 143 

Volunteers mobilized 144 

The army sets out 145 

Stillman's scouts 147 

Tribesmen in council 148 

Stillman's defeat 151 

The Hawk at Koshkonong 153 

A reign of terror 154 

The army disbanded 156 

A fresh levy 158 

Irregular hostilities 159 

Notable skirmishes 160 

The lead-mine district 162 

Dodge's Rough Riders 164 

The new army 165 

The advance to Koshkonong 165 

Fruitless scouting 167 

Black Hawk's camp 169 

Illinois men discouraged 170 

At Fort Winnebago 171 

Mutinous conduct 173 

A hot trail 174 

The pursuit 175 

At Madison 177 

Battle of Wisconsin Heights 179 

An unsuccessful appeal 181 

Preparing for the pursuit 183 

A forbidding path 185 

The Mississippi, at last 186 

The battle of the Bad Axe 187 

A dishonorable chapter 192 

The cost 193 



XIV Contents 

The Black Hawk War {continued) page 

Black Hawk a prisoner ........ 193 

Death of the Hawk 195 

His character 196 

What was accomplished 198 



IV 



The Story of Mackinac 

A struggle for mastery 203 

Three Mackinacs 204 

Champlain hears of Lake Superior .... 205 

Jean Nicolet 206 

The earliest French 207 

Flight of the Hurons 208 

At Chequamegon Bay 209 

Hurons return to Mackinac 210 

Removal to St. Ignace 211 

JoUiet and Marquette 212 

Marquette's Journal 213 

A French outpost 214 

Establishment of Detroit 216 

"Old Mackinaw" 217 

The English 218 

The island reoccupied 219 

Arrival of Americans 220 

English capture the island 221 

Americans regain their footing 223 

Centre of the fur-trade 224 

The Creoles 226 

Modern life 227 



Contents xv 



The Story of La Pointe Page 

Jean Nicolet 231 

Topographical significance of Wisconsin . . 232 

Radisson and Groseilliers on the Fox . . . ^y^ 

At Chequamegon Bay 235 

First habitation of white men 238 

A gloomy winter 239 

Ingratitude 241 

Father Menard 242 

Father Allouez 243 

Father Marquette 245 

Lords of the fur-trade 247 

The Indian and the trader 250 

Fur-trade stockades 252 

A copper nugget 254 

The first bark 254 

Allies of the French 256 

A tragic tale 257 

Alexander Henry 258 

John Johnston 259 

The Cadottes 260 

The Warrens 263 

First Protestant missionaries 265 

A denominational controversy 267 

An early Western book 269 

Father Baraga 270 

Changes in location 273 



XVI Co7itents 



VI 



A Day on Braddock's Road Page 

Brownsville 277 

Redstone Old Fort 278 

Nemacolin's Path . 279 

Redstone Creek 280 

The National Road 281 

A coaching tavern 284 

Where Braddock fell 284 

Great Meadows 286 

The first shot 288 

Siege of Fort Necessity 288 

Remains of the fort 290 

Jumonville's Camp 293 

Dunbar's Camp 294 

The meaning of it 295 



VII 



Early Lead Mining on the Ufper Mississippi 

Aboriginal use of lead 299 

Taught by whites 300 

Early traffic in ore 300 

Perrot's mines 302 

Le Sueur's operations 303 

Crozat's monopoly 305 

De Renault's discoveries 306 

Primitive methods 308 

France and Spain 309 

A considerable industry 310 



Contents xvii 

Early Lead Mining on the Upper Mississippi 

{continued) Page 

Duralde's grant '. ... 311 

A notable market 312 

Dubuque's mines 313 

Aboriginal smelting 315 

Aboriginal mining 317 

Dubuque's Indian prospectors 318 

"The Mines of Spain" 319 

Dubuque's statement 320 

Opening of American rdgime 320 

A shot tower 322 

The Buck lead 322 

French-Canadians ousted 324 

Lead a currency 324 

A general movement 326 

An enormous nugget 327 

The lease system 328 

A horde of squatters 329 

The great " boom " 330 

Spanish claimants ejected 331 

VIII 

The Draper Manuscripts 

The collector 335 

A youthful passion 336 

A patron of learning 338 

At college 33^ 

Doctors disagree 339 

Notable correspondents 340 

An itinerant interviewer 341 

Pioneer hospitality 34^ 



xviii Contents 

The Draper Manuscripts {continued) page 

Important interviews 342 

A rich harvest 344 

A Mississippi episode 347 

In a haven of refuge 348 

Alone in his specialty 349 

Co-partnership with Lossing 350 

Fearing to " go to press " 351 

Practically founds the Wisconsin Historical 

Society 352 

King's Mountain 354 

Material beyond his control 355 

The end 35^ 

The man himself 35^ 

An eminently useful career 357 

An enduring monument 35^ 



INDEX 361 



List of Illustrations 



FULL PAGE 

Page 
George Rogers Clark Frontispiece 

A Kentucky Fort 14 

Clark's Route 26 

Clark's Letter to Hamilton 60 

Black Hawk 120 

Fort Winnebago in 1834 172 



Scene of the Battle of the Bad Axe . . 
Lahontan's Map of Mackinac Strait, 1741 
Village of La Pointe, Madelaine Island . 



186 
214 

262 



TEXT 

Division of the Northwest, I TJ 

79 



IL 

in. 

IV. 
V. 
VI. 
VII. 



83 
87 
88 
92 
94 



XX List of Illustrations 

Page 

Division of the Northwest, VIII 98 

»» » » IX 100 

» » ») X 103 

j» „ >» XI 109 

Seat of Black Hawk War 117 

Chequamegon Bay 237 

Plan of Battle at Fort Necessity 287 



I 



HOW GEORGE ROGERS CLARK WON THE 
NORTHWEST 



ESSAYS 



IN 



WESTERN HISTORY 



HOW GEORGE ROGERS CLARK WON THE 
NORTHWEST 

UPON the eve of the Revolutionary War, 
the vast stretch of country northwest 
of the river Ohio — later divided into the 
States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and 
Wisconsin — was a part of the British 

A vast ^ , A ii. r 

hunting. Province of Quebec. As a result ot 
ground Wolfe's victory on the Plains of Abra- 
ham, Great Britain had acquired it from France 
by the treaty of 1763. Like the French, the 
British ministry designed keeping the region 
as an enormous hunting-ground for the benefit 
of the Indians and the fur-traders. In adopt- 
ing this policy, the government were influenced 
by three considerations: first, the enormous 
profits reaped by English merchants from the 



4 Essays in Western History 

commerce of the forest; again, the apprehen- 
sion that should colonial settlement spread 
beyond the Alleghanies, these merchants could 
not supply the people as easily as before, and 
colonial trade would be correspondingly ham- 
pered ; third, the fear that if allowed to intrench 
themselves behind the mountain wall, American 
borderers might become bolder and more im- 
pudent than ever. Selfish and short-sighted, 
they endeavored arbitrarily to hem in their 
colonists to the Atlantic Slope, thus adding a 
fresh cause for colonial uneasiness, already 
assuming ominous proportions. 

A proclamation issued (October 7, 1763) in 
the name of King George III., declared ^ " it to 
be our royal will and pleasure ... to reserve 
under our sovereignty, protection, and do- 
minion, for the use of the said Indians, ... all 
the lands and territories lying to the westward 
of the sources of the rivers which fall into the 
sea from the West and North West. . . . And 
we do hereby strictly forbid, on pain of our 
displeasure, all our loving subjects from making 
any purchases or settlements whatever, or tak- 
ing possession of any of the lands above re- 
served, without our especial leave and license." 

1 Full text in Gentleman'' s Magazine, xxxiii., pp. 477-479; 
reprinted in Wisconsin Historical Collections, xi., pp. 46-52. 



-// 



George Rogers Clark 



But King George's proclamation could no 
more keep American frontiersmen from cross- 
ing the AUeghanies and taking possession of 
the fertile valleys and plains drained by the 
west-flowing waters, than Mrs. Partington with 
her broom could sweep the Atlantic Ocean 
from her door-sill. Despite this attempt to 
obstruct the tide 'of Western settlement, the 
Northwest came soon to be conquered and 
held by Americans, until the happy result of 
the Revolution made it the national domain 
of the young Republic. 

Apparently, the royal proclamation was as 
completely ignored by the colonists and offi- 
Thekin V ^^^^^ ^^ Virginia and Pennsylvania, 
pleasure as though ncvcr penned. Under the 
ignored ^.^^^^ ^^^.^^ ^^ ^j^^j^. charters, both 

these colonies claimed the country north of 
the Ohio. Virginia held the advantage, for 
Fort Pitt, at the '' Forks of the Ohio," — our 
modern Pittsburg, — was governed by her 
militia, and Pennsylvania protested in vain. 
By this time, settlers were flocking into the 
Alleghany and Monongahela valleys, divided 
in loyalty according to the district whence 
they came; but the majority of them, espe- 
cially upon the Monongahela, were of Vir- 
ginia origin. 



6 Essays in Westerri History 

After a few years of comparative peace upon 
the border, the Indians were becoming alarmed 
at these formidable inroads on their hunting- 
The inrush grounds. The settlers were cutting 
of settlers ^qwu the forcsts, destroying the game, 
opening up farms, and giving every evidence 
of an intention to monopolize the country. 
Streams of borderers were also pouring into 
Kentucky overland, by way of Boone's road 
through Cumberland Gap ; or down the Ohio 
in all manner of curious craft, laden with their 
families, flocks, tools, and weapons, ready to 
take armed possession of that bountiful land. 
The white army of Western occupation was 
not over-nice in its methods of overriding 
whatever lay in its path. Aside from the loss 
of soil, the tribesmen had much to suffer at the 
hands of the borderers. Small wonder, then, 
that in 1774 they combined to contest this 
wholesale invasion, and after the manner of 
their kind harried the entire length of the 
border from Lake Erie to Cumberland Gap, 
with fire, rapine, and human slaughter. 

Lord Dunmore, Governor of Virginia, led an 
army against them. As usual, the Indians 
Lord Dun- wcrc defeated ; although their leader, 
move's Cornstalk, a Shawnee chief, in whom 
'^'^^ there was much to admire, fought 



George Rogers Clark 7 

with rare valor in the decisive battle of Point 
Pleasant, at the junction of the Great Kanawha 
and the Ohio. In this campaign, called in 
history Lord Dunmore's War, were, engaged 
George Rogers Clark and many other Vir- 
ginia frontiersmen who either were, or were 
soon destined to become, famous among the 
Western pioneers. 

Peace was soon after declared in a great 
council on the Pickaway Plains in Ohio, 
wherein the Northern Indians surrendered to 
the whites what slender interests they held in 
the neutral hunting-grounds of Kentucky. 
This concession, empty though it was, com- 
bined with the discreet neutrality observed by 
the vanquished tribes during the first two years 
of the Revolutionary struggle, rendered possible 
the settlement of Kentucky ; thus forging the 
first link in the chain of events on which the 
colonists based their claim to the country 
beyond the Alleghanies. 

Although the Revolution, which soon fol- 
lowed Dunmore's War, hampered progress upon 
Kentucky the Atlantic Slope, trans-AUeghany 
settled development progressed apace. For 
a time practically unhindered by the savages, 
settlers in goodly number came straggling 
into the Western country. Numerous small 



8 Essays in Western History 

communities sprang up along the Ohio and 
many of its feeders, and in Kentucky there 
soon were several log forts, around each of 
which were grouped the rude cabins of fron- 
tiersmen, who were half farmers, half hunters, 
— tall, stalwart fellows, as courageous as lions, 
and ever on the watch for the crouching Indian 
foe, who, although now absent, might appear 
when least expected. 

This quasi-peace on the Western border — 
it was well towards the close of the century 
Lientenant- ^cforc there was securcd absolute 
Governor frccdom from Indian forays — was 
soon broken. Naturally, the sympa- 
thies of the Indians were stronger for the 
British fur-traders than for the Americans, 
who were turning the hunting-grounds into 
farms, and took small pains to ingratiate them- 
selves with the aborigines. The British post 
of Detroit was commanded by Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor Henry Hamilton — a bold, brave, untir- 
ing man, but unscrupulous. During the winter 
of lyyO-yj, acting under orders from his supe- 
riors, he gathered there the Northwest Indians 
in large numbers. Among his strange guests 
were long-haired Sioux from Northwest Wis- 
consin and the Minnesota plains; sharp-faced 
Chippewas, from the south shore of Lake Supe- 



George Rogers Clark 9 

rior ; sleek and oily Sauks and Foxes from the 
Mississippi, below Prairie du Chien; broad- 
visaged, flat-nosed, swarthy Winnebagoes from 
the Rock River, the Wisconsin, and the Green 
Bay country; Potawatomis, with open counte- 
nance and feminine cast of features, from Mil- 
waukee River and all along the west shore of 
Lake Michigan ; and Menominees or wild-rice 
eaters, from west of Green Bay and around 
Lake Shawano. 

With the various bands, repugnant in their 
filth, squalor, and savagery, this cultured Eng- 
,, „, , . lishman held council after council, 

" The hatr- ' 

buying himsclf joining in their wild songs and 
genera ' ^anccs ; and, amid yelps of applause, 
with skilful throw planting the hatchet in the 
war-post, which was smeared with blood and 
hung with the scalps of American borderers. 
It is not certain to what extent Hamilton de- 
served the opprobrious epithet, *' the hair-buy- 
ing general," which the backwoodsmen fastened 
upon him ; but we know that in the warfare 
which he induced the savages to undertake 
against the Americans, those warriors who, as 
evidence of their prowess, brought most scalps 
to Detroit, received the largest rewards. Ham- 
ilton always claimed that he made endeavors to 
curb the ferocity of his savage aUies, but he 



lO Essays in Western History 

must have known how impossible was this feat. 
In judging him, however, we must rem.ember 
that the ethics of warfare were not in that day 
as humane as in ours. 

In the early spring of 1777, Hamilton's 
Indians began crossing the Ohio to raid the 
Kentucky Kentucky settlements. Militiamen 
raided were ambushed, several of the block- 
house forts were burned, prisoners were sub- 
mitted to nameless horrors; it seemed as if 
pandemonium had suddenly broken loose upon 
the border. In the numerous sieges which en- 
sued, there were performed feats of individual 
prowess on the part of the backwoodsmen and 
their wives, that are unsurpassed in the records 
of heroism. By the close of the year, so gen- 
eral had been the rush of settlers back to their 
old homes east of the mountains, but five or six 
hundred remained in all Kentucky. These 
were liable, on call, to garrison duty in the four 
remaining stations of Boonesborough, Harrods- 
burg, Price's, and Logan's. 

Prominent among the defenders of Kentucky 
during this fateful year, was George Rogers 
^ Clark. He had come from a good 

George ^ 

Rogers family in Virginia, was but twenty-five 

years of age, and, for his day, had 

acquired a fair education, but from childhood 



George Rogers Clark 1 1 

had been a rover of the woods. Full six feet 
in height, stout of frame, possessed of " red 
hair, and a black, penetrating, sparkling eye," 
he was courageous even to audacity, and ex- 
hibited strong, often unbridled passions. Clark 
early became a backwoods surveyor, such as 
Washington was, and many another young 
colonial gentleman of superior antecedents and 
training. With chain and compass, axe and 
rifle, he had in the employ of land speculators 
wandered far and wide through the border 
region, learning its trails, its fords, its mountain 
passes, and its aborigines, better than his 
books. In many ways Clark was a marked 
character in a community of strongly accent- 
uated types — heroes and desperadoes, saints 
and sinners. At the age of twenty-one he had 
served in the Dunmore War, and then settled 
as a Kentucky farmer at the mouth of Fish 
Creek, only again to be called out by an Indian 
uprising and obliged thereafter to take a lead- 
ing part in the protracted defence of the " Dark 
and Bloody Ground." Almost from the first, 
Clark ranked with Boone, Benjamin Logan, and 
others of his associates whose names are promi- 
nent in the bead-roll of American border 
heroes ; he was soon to surpass them all. 
When France surrendered her American 



12 Essays in Western History 

possessions to England, the French Creoles 
for the most part remained in their old haunts, 
French and simply transferred their politi- 
hamiets ^^| allegiance to King George. In 
the year 1777, of which we have spoken, there 
were several little French hamlets in the country 
to the north of the Ohio River, the outgrowth 
either of early Jesuit missions or the needs of 
the fur-trade, or of both combined. Detroit, 
commanding the straits between Lakes Erie 
and Huron, was the largest of these. The im- 
portant post of Mackinac guarded the gateway 
between Lakes Huron, Michigan, and Supe- 
rior. Vincennes, on the Wabash, was another 
strategic point occupied by the French Cana- 
dians. Over on the Mississippi, Kaskaskia 
and Cahokia were centres of PVench commerce 
in the West. At Green Bay were a few fur- 
traders' cabins, chief among them the estab- 
lishment of Charles Langlade, first permanent 
settler of Wisconsin. At Prairie du Chien 
there was as yet no village, although several 
traders frequently made their headquarters 
there. In the records of the time, we have 
hints of trading stations near Ashland, on 
Lakes Chetek, Flambeau, Courte Oreille, and 
on the eastern edge of the Wisconsin forest, at 
Milwaukee Bay and the port of Two Rivers. 



George Rogers Clark 1 3 

At Detroit, Mackinac, Vincennes, Kaskaskia, 
and Cahokia, were small forts built of logs. 
Frontier Thcse structures had originally been 
forts erected by the French fur-traders to 

protect their stocks of goods, and in times of 
danger served as rallying-points. When the 
English took possession they were consider- 
ably strengthened, and under this remodelling 
some of them came to be formidable fastnesses 
in a wilderness where besiegers were chiefly 
savages, without artillery. As a rule, the cur- 
tains were guarded at the four corners by 
solidly built blockhouses, serving as bastions, 
these houses being generally two stories in 
height and pierced for rifles and cannon. One 
or more of the curta,ins were formed by the 
rear walls of a row of log-cabins, the others 
being composed of palisades, great logs stand- 
ing on end, the bottoms well buried in the 
ground and the tops sharp-pointed ; around 
the inner edge of these wooden ramparts, the 
roofs of the cabins formed a gallery, on which 
crouched those of the defenders who were not 
already engaged in the blockhouses. The 
heavy-timbered gate, with its massive forged 
hinges and bolts, was guarded with particular 
tenacity. In the event of the enemy forcing 
this, or making a breach in the curtains by 



14 Essays in Western History 

burning or scaling the palisades, the block- 
houses were the last towers of refuge, around 
which the contest was waged to the bitter 
end. 

At the time of which we are speaking, these 
frontier forts were generally commanded by 
Creole British captains, with a few regular 

mthtiamen officers and privates to form the 
nucleus of the garrison, the remainder of the 
force being composed of French-Canadian vol- 
unteers ; although we shall find in charge at 
Kaskaskia a French officer in the English 
service. At Detroit and Mackinac, throughout 
the Revolutionary War, these Creole militia- 
men remained firm to the British cause ; but 
farther south, — at Vincennes, Kaskaskia, and 
Cahokia, — the English were to discover in 
them but fair-weather allies. Sometimes the 
fort, as at Kaskaskia, was the centre of the 
little French village which had grown up 
around it; in other cases, as at Vincennes, 
it commanded the cluster of cabins from some 
neighboring eminence. 

The people of these French-Canadian river- 
side hamlets took life easily. Among them 
Life among wcrc many engaged in the fur-trade at 
the Creoles certain seasons of the year — bour- 
geois, or masters, for the most part, serving as 



George Rogers Clark 1 5 

the agents or clerks of Montreal merchants ; 
voyageurs, or boatmen, men-of-all-work who 
propelled the canoes when afloat, carried them 
and their cargoes over portages, transported 
packs of goods and furs through the forest 
inlands, cared for the camps, and acted as 
guards for the persons and property of their 
employers; coureurs de bois, or wood-rangers, 
men devoted to a life in the woods through the 
very love of adventure, sometimes conducting 
a far-reaching fur-trade on their own account, 
— the widest travellers and most daring spirits 
in all the great Northwest. 

The habitants, or permanent villagers, were 
for the most part farmers in a small way. Down 
by the river stood their little log cabins, with 
well-sweeps and orchards, back of which 
stretched narrow, ribbon-like fields, remnants 
of which one may see to-day at Quebec and 
Montreal, or indeed at any of our old French 
towns in the West — for instance. Green Bay 
and Prairie du Chien. The French habitant 
was a social animal. He loved the little village 
wineshop, where, undisturbed by his sharp- 
eyed, sharp-visaged, prim and gossipy, white- 
aproned spouse, he could enjoy his pipe, his 
bowl, and his " fiddlers three." For they were 
famous fiddlers, these French-Canadians. On 



1 6 Essays in Western History 

social occasions the fiddle was indispensable. 
No American wilderness was so far away that 
the little French fiddle had not been there. 
The Indians recognized it as a part of the furni- 
ture of every fur-trader's camp. At night, as 
the wanderers lounged around the blazing heap 
of logs, the sepulchral arches of the forest re- 
sounded with the piercing strains of the violin, 
accompanying the gayly sashed and turbaned 
voyageurs, as in metallic tones they chanted 
melodies of the river, the chase, love, and the 
wassail. In the village, no christening or wed- 
ding was complete without the fiddler ; at the 
almost nightly social gatherings, in each other's 
puncheon-floored cabins, this cross-legged king 
of the feast was enthroned on a plank table. 

The river was their highway. From earliest 
youth, they understood the handling of a 
canoe. Just as in the Far West the cowboy 
mounts his horse to cross the street, and refuses 
work that cannot be done on the back of a 
broncho, the French-Canadian went in his boat 
to visit his next-door neighbor. 

It made small difference to these people who 
were in political control. All they sought was 
socially to be left alone, to enjoy life in their 
own simple fashion. On general principles, 
the attitude of King George, who wished the 



George Rogers Clark 1 7 

Western hunting-grounds left unimpaired, was 
more to their Hking than the aggressive, 
land-winning temper of the American settlers. 
Then again, over half of these French-Canadians 
had Indian wives, and in the veins of many 
flowed Indian blood. They were drawn to the 
savage tribes through relationship and sympa- 
thy. The men of New France were always 
cheek by jowl with the tribesmen, an amal- 
gamation surprising to men of Anglo-Saxon 
parentage, who seem never to be able to 
sympathize with barbarians. Yet despite these 
ties, the French of the Illinois posts, having 
already found it easy to change masters, were 
willing enough to fraternize with the American 
backwoodsmen when once brought into com- 
munication with them. 

Clark was well aware of this condition of 
affairs north of the Ohio. The French villages 
Centres of ^^^^ ceutrcs of British influence, where 
British in- the natural hostility of the savages to 
the American frontier settlements 
was being persistently excited by bribes and 
by appeals t-o their passions. Clark realized 
that so long as the Northwest was suffered to 
remain a safe rallying-point for war-parties, 
Kentucky would continue to sufl"er from forays 
and very likely the settlers be wholly exter- 



1 8 Essays in Wester^i History 

minated or at best driven from the field. He 
resolved, therefore, to *' carry the war into 
Africa," to establish a military frontier in the 
enemy's country. Spies were accordingly sent 
to Kaskaskia and Vincennes. They soon re- 
turned, reporting that the British were keeping 
but loose guard, and that while the French had 
conceived the notion, from British reports, that 
the Kentucky backwoodsmen were barbarians 
more cruel than the Indians about them, they 
were not more than lukewarm in their attach- 
ment to the king. 

In August, 1777, Clark started overland to 
Virginia, where he consulted with Patrick 
Clark's Henry, then governor of that colony, 
project as ^eii as with other prominent men, 
regarding his plan for capturing the British 
posts north of the Ohio. These gentlemen at 
once fell in with the audacious project; but as 
the success of the undertaking depended on 
secrecy, the aid given him by the governor 
was obtained from the legislature on the gen- 
eral plea that it was designed for the protection 
of Kentucky.^ Clark was made lieutenant- 

1 The public and private instructions given to Clark by 
Governor Henry are in the Appendix to Clark's letter to 
George Mason, of Virginia (dated Louisville, November 19, 
1779), as edited by Pirtle, in Ohio Valley Historical Series, 
No. 3 (Cincinnati, 1869). 



George Rogers Clark 19 

colonel (January 2, 1778), was given the equiva- 
lent of six thousand dollars in sadly depreciated 
currency, and was authorized to enlist in his 
cause three hundred and fifty Virginians wher- 
ever he might find them. 

The jealousy between Virginia and Pennsyl- 
vania, and the impossibility of revealing his 
Raising purpose, made it difficult for Clark 
volunteers ^q j-^jge voluutccrs ; indeed, he met 
with considerable opposition from those who 
apparently suspected this Western movement, 
on political grounds, or were jealous of an at- 
tempt to sequester men whose services were 
needed in the defence of the mountain valleys. 
It was May (1778) before he could collect 
about a hundred and fifty borderers from 
the clearings and hunters' camps of the Alle- 
ghany foot-hills, both east and west of the 
range. ^ 

1 Clark says in his letter to Mason : " Many leading Men 
in the fronteers, . . . had like to have put an end to the 
enterprise, not knowing my Destination, and through a spirit 
of obstinacy they combined and did every thing that lay in 
their power to stop the Men that had Enlisted, and set the 
whole Fronteers in an uproar, even condescended to harbour 
and protect those that Deserted ; I found my case desperate, 
the longer I remained the worse it was. ... I plainly saw 
that my Principal Design [an attack on Detroit] was bafHed. 
... I was resolved to push to Kentucky with what men I 



20 Essays in Western History 

They were a rough, and for the most part 
unlettered folk, these Virginia backwoodsmen 
The back- who formed Clark's little army of con- 
woodsmen qyest. There was of course no at- 
tempt among them at military uniform, officers 
in no wise being distinguished from men. The 
conventional dress of eighteenth-century bor- 
derers was an adaptation to local conditions, 
being in part borrowed from the Indians. 
Their feet were encased in moccasins. Per- 
haps the majority of the corps had loose, thin 
trousers of homespun or buckskin, with a 
fringe of leather thongs down each outer seam 
of the legs ; but many wore only leggings of 
leather, and were as bare of knee and thigh as 
a Highland clansman; indeed, many of the 
pioneers were Scotch-Irish, some of whom had 
been accustomed to this airy costume in the 
mother-land. Common to all were fringed 
hunting shirts or smocks, generally of buck- 
skin — a picturesque, flowing garment reaching 
from neck to knees, and girded about the waist 
by a leathern belt, from which dangled the 

could gather in West Augusta; being Joined by Capt'' Bow- 
man and Helms who had raised a Compy for the Expedition, 
but two thirds of them was stopt by the undesign'd Enemies 
to the Country that I have before mentioned : In the whole 
I had about one hundred & fifty Men Collected and set sail 
for the Falls [of the Ohio, now Louisville]." 



George Rogers Clark 2 1 

tomahawk and scalping-knife. On one hip 
hung the carefully scraped powder-horn ; on 
the other, a leather sack, serving both as game- 
bag and provision-pouch, although often the 
folds of the shirt, full and ample above the 
belt, were the depository for food and ammuni- 
tion. A broad-brimmed felt hat, or a cap of 
fox-skin or squirrel-skin, with the tail dangling 
behind, crowned the often tall and always 
sinewy frontiersman. His constant companion 
was his home-made flint-lock rifle — a clumsy, 
heavy weapon, so long that it reached to the 
chin of the tallest man, but unerring in the 
hands of an expert marksman, such as was 
each of these backwoodsmen. 
/They were rough in manners and in speech. 
Among them, we must confess, were men who 
had fled from the coast settlements because no 
longer to be tolerated in a law-abiding com- 
munity. There were not lacking mean, brutal 
fellows, whose innate badness had on the un- 
trammelled frontier developed into wickedness. 
Many joined Clark for mere adventure, for 
plunder, and deviltry. The majority, however, 
were men of good parts, who sought to pro- 
tect their homes at whatever peril — sincere 
men, as large of heart as they were of frame, 
many of them in later years developing into 



22 Essays m Western History 

citizens of a high type of effectiveness in a 
frontier commonwealth. As a matter of his- 
tory, most of them proved upon this expedition 
to be heroes worthy of the fame they won and 
the leader whom they followed. 

On the border, military discipline was as 
slight as in an Indian war-party. The officers, 
elected by open vote, exercised little authority 
over the wild, daring spirits whom they nomi- 
nally led. The only enduring tie between them 
was that of personal regard ; the only cohesion 
in the force, reliance on the prowess and judg- 
ment of the commander. Clark had the full 
confidence of his men, holding them by a per- 
sonal influence which was as strong as it was 
remarkable. Probably no other man on the 
border could have done what he was about 
to do. 

" I set out from Redstone [Brownsville, Pa.] 
the 1 2th of May," writes Clark in his famous 
The letter to Mason, " leaving the Country 

flotilla jj^ great confusion, miuch distressed 
by Indians." His little fleet consisted of the 
usual flatboats then used by immigrants and 
traders to the West. Stopping at Pittsburg 
and Wheeling to take on the simple supplies 
for which Governor Henry had given him requi- 
sitions upon the military officers of the upper 



George Rogers Clark 23 

Ohio country,^ he cautiously floated down 
the Ohio. Indian attacks were imminent, 
for the river was frequently being crossed by 
war-parties ; but fortunately the flotilla met 
with no opposition from this source. An ex- 
ploring party bound for the Ozark joined 
them at the mouth of the Great Kanawha, and 
together the two expeditions " had a very 
pleasant voyage to the falls of the Ohio." 

Early in June they arrived at the " Falls of 
the Ohio." Here, at the present Louisville, 
the river is broken by falls, which 
Falls of both m ascenduig and descendmg 
the Ohio necessitated the unloading of boats 
and the use of the portage path around the 
obstruction. In primitive days, a portage 
was of great importance strategically, for it 
controlled the waterway. For this reason, 
Clark tactfully chose as his base of operations 
the island in the centre of the falls, which 
commanded the portage path, and upon it 

1 " For the Transportation of the Troops, provisions, &c., 
d )vvn the Ohio, you are to apply to the Commanding Officer 
at Fort Pitt for Boats, &c. . . . You are to apply to General 
Hand for powder & Lead necessary for this Expedition. If 
he can't supply it the person who has that which Cap^ Lynn 
bro^, from Orleans can. Lead was sent to Hampshire by my 
orders & that may be delivered you." — Henry's private 
instructions to Clark. 



24 Essays in Western History 

built a blockhouse fort and planted a crop of 
Indian corn.^ 

Another reason for the island camp was, that 
dissatisfaction had by this time become mani- 
fest among his men. Few knew of 

Desertion , . . , 1.1 

his purpose, and tne mystery which 
necessarily hung around the expedition was 
doubtless preying on the minds of the weak- 
hearted. The commander found it essential 
to keep a strict guard on the boats and to 
institute a discipline which was irksome to all. 
One Heutenant, heading a small party, con- 
trived to escape, but the following day some 
of his men were captured, and the proper 
subordination was soon secured. 

On the twenty-sixth of June, having been 
joined by a few volunteers from Kentucky and 
A picked the Holston valley, Clark's flotilla was 
company again on the move, the goal being 
Kaskaskia, the principal post in the Illinois 
country. It was a picked company, the weak- 
lings having been left at the island to guard 
the blockhouse and cultivate the cornfield.^ 
Some of the bravest men on the frontier were 

1 Hence the present name, Corn Island. 

2 •' About twenty families that had followed me much 
against my Inclination, I found now to be of service to me in 
guarding a Block-house that I had erected on the Island to 
secure my Provisions." — Clark's letter to Mason. 



George Rogers Clark 25 

the captains of the four companies, and the 
equipment was as Hght as that carried by 
Indians on a foray. 

The falls were "shot" during a total solar 
eclipse, an omen variously interpreted by the 
superstitious backwoodsmen. Henceforth the 
Ohio was followed to the now abandoned 
French stronghold. Fort Massac, some ten 
miles below the mouth of the Tennessee.^ 
Just before leaving the island, Clark had re- 
ceived news of the alliance between the United 
States and France '^ in the prosecution of the 
Revolutionary War, and hoped that this would 
make it easier for him to win over the French 
in the Illinois and Wabash country. 

The American commander feared to descend 

the Ohio to its mouth and then ascend the 

Mississippi, the ordinary route to 

The march ^ ^ ^ , . . 111 ui. 

to Kashas- Kaskaskia, for his spies had brought 
'^'^ word that that path was being pa- 

trolled by French and Indian scouts. He 

1 Built by the French in 1758, on their retreat from Fort 
Duquesne. The site is now a public park in the environs of 
Moundsville, 111. 

2 See John Campbell's letter to Clark, dated Pittsburg, 
June 8, 1778, in American Historical Review, viii., p. 497- 
The original of this and most other manuscript material ex- 
tant, relative to Clark, is in the Draper MSS., Wisconsin 
Historical Society. 



26 Essays in Western History 

therefore struck across country some hundred 
and twenty miles, being guided by an Ameri- 
can hunter who had recently been in the 
French settlements. The poor fellow lost his 
way when not far out upon the path. This 
incident, Clark relates, '' put the whole Troops 
in the greatest Confusion," and caused the 
leader, suspecting treachery, to threaten *' to 
put the guide to Death if he did not find his 
way that Evening." Fortunately for all con- 
cerned, the sadly frightened pilot " in two 
hours got within his knowledge." 

With great caution, Clark toilsomely pushed 
through the forest and over *' those level Plains 
that is frequent throughout this extensive Coun- 
try . . . much afraid of being discovered in 
these Meadows as we might be seen in many 
places for several miles." On the evening of 
the fourth of July his *' little Army " of less 
than two hundred riflemen reached the east 
bank of the Kaskaskia River, on the opposite 
side from and above the town, which was 
about three miles away.^ 

1 In a letter by Clark, apparently to Governor Henry, and 
doubtless written in the summer or autumn of 1777, the 
former describes Kaskaskia from reports made to him by 
spies : " It is situated 30 leagues above the mouth of the 
Ohio, on a river of its own name, live miles from its mouth 
and two miles east of the Mississippi. . . . The town of Kus- 




Clarks route 



George Rogers Clark 27 

Remaining under cover of the woods until 
dusk, the Americans moved forward alomi 
the bank, downstream, to a farmhouse a mile 
from the village. They took the family pris- 
oners, and learned from them that Philippe 
de Rocheblave, the French commandant of 
the English fort, had " had some suspicean 
of being attacted and had some preparations, 
keeping out Spies, but they making no dis- 
coveries, had got off their guard." Roche- 
blave had frequently appealed to Detroit for 
assistance, but without avail. The captured 
habitants reported that the French militia 
were fairly well organized, and greatly feared 

kuskies contains about one hundred families of French and 
English, and carry on an extensive trade with the Indians ; 
and they have a considepable number of negroes that bear 
arms and are chiefly employed in managing their farms that 
lay around the town, and send a considerable quantity of flour 
and other commodities to New Orleans. . . . The fort, which 
stands a small distance below the town is built of stockading 
about ten feet high, with blockhouses at each corner, with 
several pieces of cannon mounted, powder, ball, and all other 
necessary .stores without guard or a single soldier. . . . The 
principal inhabitants are entirely against the American cause, 
and look on us as notorious rebels that ought to be subdued 
at any rate, but I don't doubt but after being acquainted with 
the cause they would become good friends to it." There is 
only a transcript of this letter in existence, and this is in the 
Draper MSS. ; it is published in full, edited by Professor 
F. J. Turner, in Amcr. Hist. Rev., April, 1903, pp. 491-494. 



28 Essays in Western History 

the Americans, while the Indians of the dis- 
trict bitterly hated the " Big Knives," ^ as 
they called the frontiersmen. There were 
four or five hundred men in the place, and 
it could only be taken by surprise. A few 
days before there had been an alarm in the 
fort, but a sense of security was now felt. 

Clark was as quick in action as in thought. 
Having at the farm " found plenty of Boats to 
Cross in," his men were in two hours' time 
silently ferried across the Kaskaskia River. 
They were divided into two parties, one sur- 
rounding the town, which was above, although 
adjoining the fort, the other accompanying 
their leader and a French guide from the farm- 
house under the brow of the river-bank to the 
postern gate, near the water's edge. 

The myth-maker is of every age and every 
land. He has not spared American frontier 
Apidu- history. We see his handiwork in 
resque Hero the Pocahontas story ; in popular tales 
concerning Jesuit mission-sites in the 
Old Northwest ; in the apocryphal incidents of 
the siege of Wheeling; in the hero-tales of 
Boone in Kentucky, of the scouts Brady and 

1 The Indians thus styled the borderers, probably because 
whites first introduced among North American savages the 
use of knives. 



George Rogers Clark 29 

Wetzel, of Brant, the Iroquois chieftain — to 
mention but a few. He has also befooled 
some of the chroniclers of the doings of 
George Rogers Clark. 

We have been told that, as Clark and his 
men lay there by the postern gate, they could 
hear the sounds of French fiddles squeaking a 
quadrille, and now and then gay shouts and 
laughter. The officers of the post were, it is 
related, giving a ball to the habitants, in the 
large assembly room with its puncheon floor. 
The outlying houses were deserted. Men and 
women, villagers and garrison, Indians and 
coureurs de bois, v/ere without regard to rank 
or race crowded into the hall, heeding nothing 
save the dance. Even the sentinels had de- 
serted their posts to join in the festivities, and 
Kaskaskia, a victim to the irrepressible gayety 
of the French, was wholly unguarded, 
^^^^^^^eaving his men at the gate, says the story- 
teller, Clark, alone with his guide, strode across 
the parade and, leaning against the door-post, 
with folded arms watched the gay scene — a 
patch of light and color in the heart of the 
gloomy wilderness. As he calmly stood there, 
an unbidden guest, an Indian lying curled in 
his blanket on the entry floor, started and 
gazed intently upon him. Another moment, 



30 Essays in Western History 

the savage sprang to his feet and sounded the 

war-whoop. 

In the midst of the general consternation, 

Rocheblave and his brother officers hurried to 

the door; but Clark, unmoved, bade them go 

on with the dance, but be pleased to remember 

that they were now holding revelry under the 

banner of Virmnia and not that of Great 

•'V 
Britain// Instantly Clark's detail, left at the 

gate, 'v(^arned by the war-whoop rushed in and 
secured the garrison. It is a picturesque hero 
tale. One fastidious might say it smacked over- 
much of melodrama ; but I almost wish it were 
true, for our often sombre Western history 
seems now and then to need a lurid touch like 
this.i 

While Clark's letter to Mason gives but the 
principal incidents in outline, we have the 
y,^^^ credible statement of one of his men ^ 

capture of that Clark's party of about a dozen, 

Kaskaskia ^^ ^y^^^ j^^ ^^^^^ ^^^ rivcr-bauk, 

were ** saluted merrily" by keen-scented dogs, 

1 The tale appears to have first been published in 
Denny's " Memoir of Major Ebenezer Denny," Penn. Histor. 
Soc. Publications (i860), vii., pp. 217, 218. The scene has 
been represented by an artist in Lodge's Story of the Revolu- 
tion (N. Y., 1898), ii., p. 20. 

^ Statement of Daniel Henry to L. C. Draper, in 1844, in 
the Draper MSS. 



George Rogers Clark 31 

but this did not disturb the Httle garrison. 
Finding the fort gate open, they pushed on in 
the dark to Rocheblave's house, pointed out by 
the guide, found and captured the unsuspecting 
governor in an upper room, brought him below, 
and then gave ** a loud huzza, answered by the 
other" party, which had now divided into 
squads of four or five men each. Yelling like 
mad, the now united Virginians easily over- 
awed the puny garrison of Creoles, and, to re- 
sume our quotations from Clark, "in 15 
minutes" were masters of the place without 
the firing of a gun. 

Every street was guarded, and runners were 
sent out, " ordering the People on pane of 
Death to keep close to their Houses, which 
they observ'd." At daylight, the soldiers and 
the people were disarmed. By this stern 
promptness Clark had succeeded in thoroughly 
cowing the villagers — "nothing could excell 
the Confusion these People seemed to be in, 
being taught to expect nothing but Savage 
treatment from the Americans. Giving all for 
lost their Lives were all they could dare beg 
for, which they did with the greatest fervancy, 
they were willing to be Slaves to save their 
families. I told them it did not suit me to 
give them an answer at that time, they re- 



32 Essays in Western History 

pared to their houses, trembling as if they 
were led to Execution ; my principal would 
not suffer me to distress such a number 
of People, except, through policy it was 
necessary." 

Their mercurial spirits soon rose, however, 
when they learned during the day that instead 
of being made the slaves of the bloodthirsty 
Virginians, they were, upon taking the oath of 
allegiance to the Republic, to be allowed to 
come and go at their pleasure, and meet in their 
little Catholic church as of old. Clark ex- 
plained to a deputation of the people the 
American view of the war, and added that 
the Republic meant to free, not enslave, the 
people of the Illinois country, and would be 
a better friend to them than the British 
king. 

" No sooner had they [a deputation of vil- 
lagers who waited on him] heard this," pictur- 
'' An excess ^^^^^y writcs Clark, *^ than joy 
of joy'' sparkled in their Eyes and [they] fell 
into Transports of Joy that really surprised 
me. . . . They returned to their families, 
and in a few minutes the scean of mourning 
and distress, was turned into an excess of 
Joy, nothing else seen nor heard. Addorn- 
ing the streets with flowers Pavilians of dif- 



George Rogers Clark 33 

ferent colours, compleating their happiness 
by singing, &c." 

To a man, the Creoles took the oath of loy- 
alty to the United States. Commander Roche- 
blave, however, had been violent and insulting 
in temper, and Clark, to teach the people a 
lesson, sent him on to Virginia as a prisoner 
and appropriated his black slaves, which were 
soon after sold for the equivalent of $2,500. 
This prize-money was divided among the rifle- 
men, who were well pleased at the financial 
outcome of the expedition. 

As for Father Pierre Gibault,^ the Kaskas- 
kia priest, he was a zealous Clark man from 
Father the time the generous conqueror gave 
Gibauit j^-j^^ ^Q understand that an American 
officer had '' nothing to do with Churches more 
than to defend them from Insult. That by the 
laws of the State [Virginia] hts Religion had as 
great Previledges as any other : This seem'd to 
compleat their happiness." The good father 
assured his new friend that although as a priest 
he had '' nothing to do with temporal business, 
that he would give them such hints in the 
Spiritual way, that would be very conducive to 
the business." 

^ Whom Clark, singularly perverse in the spelling of 
foreign proper names, calls *' Mr. Jcboth." 
3 



34 Essays in Western History 

A small party of Americans, with some 

French volunteers now eager to serve the 

cause of Virginia, went rapidly on 

Cahokia /^ i i • 

horseback to Cahokia, " about sixty 
miles up the Country," where the people 
promptly fraternized with the invaders, and 
accepted Captain Joseph Bowman as local 
superintendent. At the same time, Gibault, 
on his own motion, in company with Dr. 
Le Font, principal of the Jesuit seminary at 
Kaskaskia, and a few others, went overland to 
Vincennes, "a Town about the size of Williams- 
burg." On the first of August they returned 
with the news that through the father's influ- 
ence the American flag had been hoisted on 
the walls of the fort, from which the half- 
dozen British soldiers had deemed it wise to 
withdraw. Clark at once sent Captain Leonard 
Helm to take command of the French militia 
at Vincennes, while he remained at Kaskaskia. 
Successful in his immediate designs, Clark's 
position was nevertheless perilous. *' The nu- 
merous Tribes of Indians attached to the French 
was yet to enfluence, for I was too weak to 
treat them in any other way . . . every Nation 
of Indians could raise three, or four times our 
Number. . . . Savages, whose minds had long 
been poisoned by the English." Far to the 



George Rogers Clark 35 

north lay the British base in the Northwest. 
These southern towns were but the outposts of 
a formidable and resourceful enemy, concern- 
ing whose movements he could learn but little. 
His chief desire was to strike at Detroit, 
as the centre of English operations ; but for 
A new this he needed a far larger corps 
difficulty — indeed, he lacked sufficient men 
for his present plans, which involved several 
side expeditions among both French and In- 
dians, in order to secure his foothold. A new 
difficulty now beset him, and increased the 
hazard. The greater part of his followers, 
their time of service having expired, were hot 
for returning home. " It was," he tells us, 
" with Difficulty that I could support that 
Dignity that was necessary to give my or- 
ders that force that was necessary, but by 
great preasants and promises I got about 
one hundred of my Detachment Enlisted for 
eight months, and to colour my staying with 
so few Troops I made a faint of returning to 
the Falls, as though I had sufficient confidence 
in the People, hoping that the Inhabitants 
would remonstrate against my leaving, which 
they did in the warmest terms. . . . Then 
seemingly by their request I agreed to stay 
with two Companies of Troops, and that I 



36 Essays in Western History 

hardly thought, as they alledged that so many 
was necessary ; but if more was wanted I could 
get them from the Falls, where they were made 
to believe there was a Considerable Garrison." 

Those volunteers who persisted in returning 
home having been sent off to the Falls, — with 
Rocheblave in their custody, and bearing let- 
ters from Clark to Henry, *' letting him know 
my situation and the necessity of Troops in 
the Country," — the commander settled down 
for a winter at Kaskaskia. To fill the great 
gap in his ranks, he enlisted young French 
volunteers who, being " fond of the service, 
the different Companies soon got Compleat." 

The difficulties which surrounded him, and 
his work of drilling the recruits, are best told 
DriiiUig in his own words : *' My situation 
recruits ^^^j wcckuess conviuccd me that 

more depended oia my own Behaviour and 
Conduct, than all the Troops that I had far 
removed from the Body of my Country : situ- 
ated among French, Spanyards, and Numerous 
Bands of Savages on every quarter: Watching 
my actions, ready to receive impressions favour- 
able or not so of us, which might be hard to 
remove, and would perhaps produce lasting 
good, or ill effects. . . . Strict subordination 
among the Troops was my first object, and 



George Rogers Clark 37 

[I] soon effected it . . . Our Troops being all 
Raw and undissiplined You must [be] sensible 
of the pleasure I felt when harangueing them 
on Perade, Telling them my Resolutions, and 
the necessity of strict duty for our own preser- 
vation &c. For them to return me for Answer, 
that it was their Zeal for their Country that in- 
duced them to engage in the Service, that they 
were sencible of their situation and Danger; 
that nothing could conduce more to their 
safety and happiness, than good order, which 
they would try to adhere to, and hoped that 
no favour would be shewn those that would 
neglect it. In a short time perhaps no Garri- 
son could boast of better order, or a more 
Valuable set of Men." 

Another important duty consisted in obtain- 
ing a good understanding with the Spaniards 
who, from their northern capital, the 

*' Our . 

friends the neighbor hamlet of St. Louis, con- 
span- trolled Upper Louisiana. His ad- 

yards " 1 1 i i -r^ 

vances were well taken by Don 
Francisco de Leyba, the lieutenant-governor. 
"■ Our friends the Spanyards," Clark writes, 
are ** doing every thing in their power to 
convince me of their friendship." De Leyba, 
who met him at Cahokia, appears at once to 
have formed an attachment for the gallant Vir- 



men con- 
fused 



38 Essays m Western History 

ginian, who on his part testifies that as he ''was 
never before in comp'' with any Spanish Gent 
I was much surprised in my expectations ; for 
instead of finding that reserve thought pecuHar 
to that Nation, I here saw not the least symp- 
toms of it, freedom almost to excess gave the 
greatest pleasure." 

*' Domestick afi"airs being partly well settled," 
Clark playfully continues, " the Indian Depart- 
The tribe- ^^"^^ Came ucxt the object of my 
attention and of the greatest import- 
ance." The sudden arrival in the 
country of the Big Knives had thrown the 
tribesmen in the *' greatest consternation." For 
a time they knew not which cause to espouse. 
" They were generally at War against us, but 
the French and the Spainyards appearing so 
fond of us confused them, they counciled with 
the French Traders, to know what was best to 
be done, and of course was advised to come 
and selicit for peace, and did not doubt but we 
might be good Friends." By dint of a combi- 
nation of threats, cajolery, and braggart talk, 
well suited to impress them, Clark skilfully 
brought the Indians to terms. His vigorous 
speeches, sent to Bowman at Cahokia (**Cohos" 
of Clark's manuscript) and Helm at Vincennes, 
were read by those commanders to the as- 



p 



George Rogers Clark 39 

scmblcd tribes, and ''did more service than a 
Regiment of Men cou'd have done ; " while 
French and half-breed messengers carried 
similar overtures through a wide belt of 
country, going as far north as the Fox River 
in Wisconsin. 

Proceeding to Cahokia himself to meet 
the Indians at a great council, " it was with 
Savfti^e astonishment," he writes, that he 
friends " vicwcd the Amazcing number of Sav- "p ' 
ages that soon flocked into the town of Cohos ^^-^ 

to treat for peace, and to hear what the Big 
knives had to say, many of them 500 miles 
distant, Chipoways, Ottoways, Petawatomies, ^ 
Puans, Sacks, Foxes, Sayges, Tauways, Maw- <: 
mies ^ and a number of other Nations, all living 
east of the Messicippa, and many of them at 
War against us." Indeed, the number of his 
new-found savage friends that assembled at 
Cahokia was so great that during the five 
weeks of his stay there, ** such a number of 
Devils " gave him great anxiety and required 
a stern hand to repress; for they were fond, y 
after the manner of v/ild animals, of testing 
the strength of the stranger, who, however, 
stoutly held his own among them. 

1 Chippewas, Ottovvas, Potawatomis,\Vinnebagoes, Sauks, 
Foxes, Osages, lowas, Miamis. 



./" 



/ 

^ Essays in Western History 

Godefroy Linctot, the French trader at 
Prairie du Chien, openly espoused the Ameri- 
can cause and did valuable service as Clark's 
agent north and west of the Illinois River, 
purchasing horses among the Sauks, and raid- 
ing the country. Clark's management of the 
Indians was superb, and they came to have a 
wholesome and lasting fear of the Big Knife 
chief; while those of the French who fell under 
his influence entertained for him a loving regard. 

Meanwhile, General Hamilton at Detroit 
was greatly annoyed by the news from Vin- 
Hamihon's ccnncs. With characteristic energy 
Tvar-pariy |^g ^^^^ agcuts out through the 
tribes of Michigan and Wisconsin, and made 
preparations for a formidable war-party for the 
retaking of that important post. The entire 
month of September was spent in fitting out 
the expedition. The seventh of October, 
headed by Hamilton himself, it left for the 
south, numbering a hundred and seventy- 
seven whites, chiefly Creole volunteers, and 
about three hundred Indians. 

The heavily laden flotilla of batteaux pro- 
ceeded up the Maumee, over the portage of 
,,. nine miles, and down a tributary of 

taken by the Wabash. The water was shallow ; 
an early winter set in, forming ice on 



George Rogers Clark 41 I 



the streams ; and before the contingent reached 
Vincennes it was the seventeenth of December, 
seventy-one days after starting. Captain Helm 
and his one American soldier made a show of 
resistance, but on the French militia deserting 
to the enemy, it became necessary to surren- 
der.^ Some of Clark's spies from Kaskaskia, 
who were hanging on Hamilton's flanks, were 
also captured. If Hamilton had at once pushed 
forward and attacked Clark at Kaskaskia, there 
is no doubt that the Americans must either 
have succumbed or retired beyond the Mis- 
sissippi into Spanish territory. But in mid- 
winter the way was filled with great difficulties 
- for the advance of an army column, hampered 
with baggage. Hamilton therefore remained 
at Vincennes, allowed all but some eighty or 

1 " When Governor Hamilton entered Vincennes, there 
were but two Americans there, Captain Helm, the com- 
mandant, and one Henry. The [latter] had a cannon well 
charged, and placed in the open fort gate, while Helm stood 
by it with a lighted match in his hand. When Hamilton 
and his troops got within good hailing distance, the Ameri- 
can officer, in a loud voice, cried out, ' Halt ! ' This stopped 
the movement of Hamilton, who, in reply, demanded a sur- 
render of the garrison. Helm exclaimed with an oath, ' No 
man shall enter until I know the terms.' Hamilton answered, 
'You shall have the honors of war;' and then the fort was 
surrendered, with its garrison of one officer, and one man." — 
Butler's Kentucky (Louisville, 1834), p. 80, note. 



42 . Essays in Western History 

ninety whites and a hundred Indians to return 
home, and spent the time planning for a great 
spring campaign against the Illinois, in which 
he proposed to batter down the forts with 
cannon, and then turning southward make a 
clean sweep of the Kentucky stations. Had 
he succeeded in 'this bold project, all American 
settlement west of the Alleghanies would have 
been destroyed, and the United States might 
have lost the West forever. 

The news of the recapture of Vincennes 
was over a month in reaching Clark. Know- 
A scare at i^"^? ^hat the British expedition had 
Kaskaskia ^X Icast reached the old Indian vil- 
lage on the site of the present city of Fort 
Wayne, Indiana, but as yet uninformed of the 
result, Clark started early in January (1779) 
for Cahokia, in order to hold a conference 
there with the principal inhabitants of the 
Illinois country. On his way he and his 
** Guard of about six or seven Men and a few 
Gentlemen in Chairs " narrowly escaped being 
ambushed, three miles out of Kaskaskia, by a 
party of ** 40 Savages headed by white Men " 
whom Hamilton had sent out from Vincennes 
to take Clark prisoner, having given them 
** such Instructions for my treatment as did 
him no dishonour." Delayed by an accident, 



George Rogers Clark 43 

the travellers had by evening only reached the 
old French village of La Prairie du Rocher, 
fourteen miles northwest of Kaskaskia. Here 
they prepared to pass the night. While being 
entertained at a ball, an express rider arrived 
with the appalling news that Hamilton was 
within three miles of Kaskaskia, with eight hun- 
dred men. " I never saw greater confusion 
among a small Assembly than was at that time, 
every Person having their eyes on me, as if my 
word was to determine their good or Evil fate." 
As usual, Clark coolly ordered his horses sad- 
dled for the return, and told the frightened 
company '* That I hoped that they would not 
let the news Spoil our Divirsion sooner than 
was necessary, that we would divirt ourselves 
until our horses was ready, forced them to 
dance, and endeavoured to appear as uncon- 
cerned as if no such thing was in Adjutation." 
On reaching Kaskaskia, the inhabitants, as 
yet unattacked, were found confident that the 
enemy was but biding his time ; and during 
the next few days Clark was obliged to exer- 
cise tact and firmness in a remarkable degree. 
The Creoles, confident that the Americans 
would lose, and that the English would treat 
them badly for having succored the enemy, at 
first affected neutrahty. But after Clark had 



44 Essays iit Western History 

made a feint of burning the town and of 
hanging a villager who had circulated dis- 
comforting rumors of a British advance, the 
Kaskaskians again profusely expressed their 
devotion to Virginia. Whereupon the astute 
commander ** altered my conduct towards them 
and treated them with the greatest kindness, 
granting them every request, my influence 
among them in a few hours was greater than 
ever." The incident closed happily with the 
discovery that *' the great Army that gave the 
alarm consisted only of about forty Whites 
and Indians making their Retreat as fast as 
possible to St. Vincent, sent for no other pur- 
pose, as we found after than to take me." 

This adventure convinced Clark — although 
he had as yet received no news, for his spies 
Clark on the Wabash had been taken by 

uneasy ^|^^^ enemy — that Hamilton was now 
at Vincennes. The French in the Illinois 
elsewhere than at Kaskaskia where they now 
stoutly professed confidence in the Americans, 
were panic-stricken, and the neighboring tribes 
grew insolent in their demands. Confidently 
expecting an attack, the commander made 
careful preparations, even to the extent of 
planning to burn the outlying dwellings, so as 
to afford no cover to the enemy. He felt sure 



George Rogers Clark 45 

of his meagre garrison, but had the gravest 
doubts of cooperation from the Creoles out- 
side. His requested reinforcements could 
hardly be expected at this season from Vir- 
ginia and Kentucky. He philosophically de- 
clares that he " suffered more uneasiness than 
when I was certain of an immediate attact, as 
I had more time to reflect." The end of 
American rule seemed near. 

The gloom lifted on the evening of the 
twenty-ninth of January, when Col. Francis 
Vigo's in- Vigo arrived from St. Louis with defi- 
formation j^j^^ information concerning the small- 
ness of Hamilton's winter garrison at Vincennes, 
and his intended inaction until spring. Vigo, 
a Spanish merchant who had business connec- 
tions with the governor of Upper Louisiana, 
had visited Clark upon the latter's capture of 
Kaskaskia, and not only promised his influence 
in behalf of the Virginians, but made them a 
substantial loan. Upon Clark's request he 
went to Vincennes, accompanied only by a 
servant, to ascertain the situation of affairs. 
Hamilton, suspicious of his intent, for a time 
held him on parole at the fort, but finally 
allowed him to depart on signing an agreement 
**not to do anything injurious to the British 
interests on his way to St. Louis." As promised, 



46 Essays i7i Western History 

Vigo proceeded to St. Louis in his piroque, but 
thereupon promptly re-embarked and crossed 
to Kaskaskia, bringing, as Clark writes, "every 
intilligence I could wish to have." 

Clark was eminently a man of action. Recog- 
nizing that if Hamilton proceeded against him 
Forestall- ^ would be lost, he at once deter- 
ingthe mined to forestall the enemy by mak- 
enemy .^^ ^^ attack liimsclf. " It was at 

this moment," he declares, ** I would have 
bound myself seven years a Slave, to have 
had five hundred Troops." 

" I had a Large Boat prepared and Rigged," 
— a rowing galley or batteau, called the " Will- 
ing," — "mounting two four pounders 4 large 
swivels Manned with a fine Comp [of forty men] 
commanded by Lieut. Rogers. . . . This Vessel 
when compleat was much admired by the In- 
habitants as no such thing had been seen in 
the Country before. I had great Expectations 
from her." The galley was despatched in the 
evening of the fourth of February, with orders 
to patrol the Ohio and if possible to approach 
within ten leagues of Vincennes, on the Wabash, 
the purpose being to prevent English boats from 
descending upon the Kentucky settlements. 

" I conducted myself as though I was sure 
of taking Mr. Hamilton, instructed my officers 



George Rogers Clark 47 

to observe the same Rule. In a day or two the 
Country seemed to beheve it, many anctious 
to Retrieve their Characters turned out, the 
Ladies, began also to be spirited and interest 
themselves in the Expedition, which had a 
great effect on the Young Men." Persuaded 
by the Creole girls, both at Cahokia and Vin- 
cennes, *' the Principal Young Men of the Illi- 
nois " flocked to the call of the tall Virginian. 
Upon the day following the departure of the 
" Willing," he was able to march out of Kas- 
kaskia at the head of a hundred and seventy^ 
bold fellows, American and French. " I cannot 
'' Inward ^ccouut for it," dcclarcs our hero, 
assurance " but I Still had iuward assurance of 
of success success, and never could when weigh- 
ing every Circumstance doubt it: But I had 
some secret check." 

In order to surprise Vincennes, it was of 
course necessary to avoid the usual river route 
by the Ohio and the Wabash. The expedition 
started off across the country, a distance of 
some two hundred and thirty miles.^- In sum- 
mer it was a delightful region of alternating 

1 Clark says, "a little upwards of two hundred"; but 
Bowman's Journal (Pirtle's Clark's Campaign in the Illinois, 
p. 100), from which we obtain many details of the march, 
specifically gives the number as "170 men . . . [including] 
artillery, pack-horses," &c. 



48 Essays in Western History 

lakes, rivers, groves, and prairiesrf- " I suppose 
one of the most beautiful Country in the world." 
In the dead of winter, it afforded fair travelling 
A difficult over the frozen plains and ice-bridged 
march streams. But now, in February, the 
weather had moderated and great freshets had 
flooded the broad area of lowland. The ground 
was boggy, progress was slow and difficult, 
there were no tents, the floods had driven away 
much of the game, — although ** numbers of 
buffaloes" were killed early in the march, — 
and Clark and his officers were often at their 
wits' ends to devise methods for keeping their 
hard-worked men in good spirits./ The several 
companies vied in hunting and cooking for 
each other; and at night held feasts in the 
Indian fashion around great camp-fires, at which 
there were singing and dancing, to the accom- 
paniment of the inevitable French fiddle. 

And thus the first week sped. Then came 
(January 13) the so-called " drowned lands " of 
j,j^^ the Wabash, a wide stretch of sub- 

'' drowned merged country extending the most of 
the way from the Little Wabash into 
Vincennes. The two branches of the Little Wa- 
bash, with channels a league apart, were now 
so high that they made a single river five miles 
wide, with the water in no place less than three 



George Rogers Clark 49 

feet deep. ''This would have been enough to 
have stoped any set of men that was not in the 
same temper we was in." 

It was the following afternoon before a large 
canoe could be constructed, and on the third 
day this was employed in transporting the men 
and baggage across the deep channels, the 
horses swimming behind. In the shallow 
places, men and beasts plunged through the 
bush-strewn water and mud — the former 
" Building scaffolds at each [shallow] to lodge 
our Baggage on until the Horses Crossed to 
take them; it Rained nearly a third of our 
march, but we never halted for it." 

There was no longer any game to be had, and 
it was now dangerous to discharge guns, be- 
„ f j^^ cause of the proximity to Vincennes. 
and Almost wom out by fatigue and 

hunger hunger, the expedition reached the 
Embarrass River on the seventeenth, twelve 
days out from Kaskaskia; but it was found 
impracticable to cross the Embarrass, now a 
raging flood. The best they could do was to 
find a swampy little hillock on which — amid 
''drizzly and dark weather " — they crowded 
together for the night, of course wet to the 
skin, shivering with cold, and with neither food 
nor fire. 

4 



50 Essays in Western History 

Next morning, the sound of the sunrise gun 
at Vincennes, but nine miles away, came 
Wallowing booming over the waste of waters. 
throitgh They were, however, still far from 
"^ having reached their goal. Wallow- 
ing through the bog, down the west bank of 
the Embarrass, they came at last to the Wabash, 
and here two days were spent in building 
canoes. " From the spot we now lay on [it] 
was about ten miles to Town, and every foot 
of the way put together that was not three feet 
and upwards under water would not have 
made the length of two miles and a half, and 
not a mouthful of Provision. ... If I was sen- 
sible that you [George Mason] would let no 
Person see this relation, I would give You a 
detail of our suffering for four days in crossing 
those waters, and the manner it was done, as 
I am sure that You wou'd Credit it, but it is 
too incredible for any Person to believe except 
those that are well acquainted with me as You 
are, or had experienced something similar to 
it. I hope you will excuse me until I have 
the pleasure of seeing you personally." Clark's 
energies were taxed to the utmost to keep his 
Frenchmen from deserting, they being greatly 
depressed by the miseries of the situation, but 
the Americans were undaunted. 



George Rogers Clark 5 1 

Details sent on a raft and in a canoe to steal 
boats in the neighborhood of the town re- 
'' Hard turned after two days without success, 
fortune!'^ '' for there was," says Bowman, " not 
one foot of dry land to be found. . . . Col. 
Clark sent two men in the canoe, down to 
meet the batteau [the " Willing "], with orders 
to come on day and night; that being our last 
hope, and [we] starving. ... No provisions 
of any sort, now two days. Hard fortune ! " 
At noon of the twentieth, a boat was brought 
in with five Frenchmen from Vincennes. The 
villagers reported that among Hamilton and 
his men there was no suspicion of an attack, 
while ''the inhabitants were well disposed 
towards us." This news and the killing of a 
deer raised the spirits of the party. 

On the twenty-first it rained all day. At 
daybreak the invaders were ferried to the east 
side of the Wabash, that on which lay Vin- 
cennes. Through the vast swamp, — " no 
dry land on any side for many leagues," — 
the water often up to their chins, the strongest 
waded, the canoes carrying the weak and fam- 
ished. With infinite toil, but three miles had 
been covered when at dusk they sank ex- 
hausted upon another boggy island knoll, 
and for the seventh night — within sound of 



52 Essays in Western History 

" the evening and morning guns from the 
fort " — slept hungry and in clothes sopping 
wet. 

Next day it was the same story, the brave 
fellows plunging on through the freezing flood, 
The man Indian file, the man of iron at the 
o/tron head now and then leading off in 
a favorite song, which was caught up along 
the column and helped lighten the weary feet 
of the adventurers. That night was passed on 
a maple-grown hillock six miles out from Vin- 
cennes. It was bitter cold ; in the morning 
(the 23d) there was ice half an inch thick 
on the smooth water, and the men were 
encased in arctic armor. The sun rose bright. 
Clark assured his stiftened, half-frozen, well- 
nigh famished crew that the next night would 
see them in Vincennes; then, dashing into 
the water at the head of the file, ordered his 
officers to close the rear and shoot any man 
who refused to march. ^ 

1 Law's Colonial History of Vincennes (Louisville, 1858), p. 
32, gives this story, which apparently has been somewhat 
heightened in color : " In one of the companies was a small 
boy who acted as drummer. In the same company was a 
seargeant, standing six feet two inches in his stockings, stout, 
athletic, and devoted to Clark. Finding that his eloquence 
had no effect upon the men, in persuading, them to continue 
their line of march, Clark mounted the little drummer on the 
shoulders of the stalwart sergeant, and gave orders to him 



George Rogers Clark 53 

Now came the worst experience of all. The 
Horseshoe Plain before them had been trans- 
A frightful formed by the floods into a shallow 
crossing j^j^g fQ^j. ^liles wide. No clump of 
land stood above the water ; it was one smooth 
unbroken expanse, on the farther side of 
which were heavy woods shielding them from 
the town. About the centre, the prolonged 
hardships of the march began at last to tell on 
all save the strongest. All along the line brave 
fellows dropped in the ranks, and the canoe- 
men frantically plied between them and the 
land beyond, saving the helpless from drowning. 
The strong supported those who could still 
keep their feet, while Clark, with alternating 
gibe and stern command, exerted himself to 
animate his followers. The water was often 
to the shoulders of the tallest; and when at 
last the edge of the island grove was reached, 
there were few who did not sink to the ground 
exhausted, to be rallied only through great 
exertion. Fortunately some food was obtained 

to plunge into the half-frozen water. He did so, the little 
drummer beating the charge from his lofty perch, while 
Clark, sword in hand, followed them, giving the command 
as he threw aside the floating ice — ' Forward ! ' Elated and 
amused with the scene, the men promptly obeyed, holding 
their rifles above their heads, and in spite of all obstacles, 
reached the high land beyond them, safely." 



54 Essays in Western History 

from a party of Indian women who chanced to 
pass in a canoe, fires were lighted, the weakest 
were treated to broth, and soon all were in- 
spired to fresh courage. 

Two miles away, through the woods and 
across another lake, they could see the town, 
Hamilton ^^^^ despair was followed by rejoicing. 
still nil- *' Laying in this Grove some time to 
dry our Clothes by the Sun we took 
another Prisoner," a Creole out shooting ducks, 
and from him learned that Hamilton was still 
unconscious of his danger. Two hundred In- 
dians had, however, just arrived in town. This 
last information was discouraging, for that 
made the force in Vincennes — British, French, 
and Indian — four times his own. '' A thou- 
sand Ideas," he says, *' flushed in my Head at 
this moment." He now thought it impolitic 
to surprise the place, for in the fight some of 
the French and Indians might be killed and 
this would embitter the rest; whereas his in- 
formant told him the French were lukewarm 
and would only fight if forced to it. 

" I resolved to appear as Daring as possible, 
that the Enemy might conceive by our be- 
ciark's haviour that we were very numer- 
leiterto Q^g and probably discourage them." 
viiia<rers Accordingly he sent by this man the 



George Rogers Clark 55 

following letter^ to the villagers, who lived 
apart from the fort, which was on a rising 
ground overlooking the town : 

.^o THE Inhabitants of Post St. Vincents : 

Gentlemen^ — Being now within two miles of your 
village with my army, determined to take your Fort 
this night, and not being willing to surprize you, I 
take this method to request such of you as are true 
citizens, and willing to enjoy the liberty I bring you, 
to remain still in your houses. And those, if any 
there be, that are friends to the King, will instantly 
repair to the fort, and join the Hair-buyer General^ 
and fight like men. And if any such, as do not go 
to the Fort shall be discovered afterwards, they may 
depend on severe punishment. On the contrary, 
those that are true friends to liberty, may depend 
on being well treated. And I once more request 
them to keep out of the streets ; for every one I find 
in arms on my arrival, I shall treat as an enemy. 

G. R. Clark. 

As they gathered in the public square of 
Vincennes to hear the letter read, Clark's name 

1 Given in Bowman's Journal, in Pirtle, p. 104. But 
while Pirtle gives Clark's letter to Mason verbatim et liter- 
atim, Bowman's Journal is taken by him from the Louisville 
Literary News-Letter (November z\, 1840), for which publi- 
cation it was obviously " improved " in diction, orthography, 
punctuation, and capitalization ; we thus have only a para* 
phrase of Clark's letter, not the actual document. 



56 Essays in Western History 

inspired the Creoles with awe. His sudden 
appearance out of the swamps appalled them, 
and they were so frightened by his tone of 
confident menace that none dared show enough 
favor to the British to go up and warn the gar- 
rison, who had seen the sudden commotion in 
/the village, but were not aware of the cause. 

Clark's camp could be seen from the town, 

although not from the fort. An open plain 

lay between Vincennes and the grove 

A ruse ^ ^ 

wherein the invaders were drying 
themselves in the sun. Realizing that he 
must make some show of force while his letter 
was being considered, he marched his men 
back and forth just within the edge of the 
wood ; '' but taking advantage of the Land, 
disposed the lines in such a manner that 
nothing but the Pavilions [doubtless shelter- 
huts of boughs] could be seen, having as many 
of them as would be sufficient for a thousand 
Men, which was observed by the Inhabitants 
who had Just Receiv'd my letter, counted the 
different Colours and Judged of our numbers 
accordingly. But I was careful to give them 
no oppertunity of seeing our Troops before 
dark, which it would be before we could Arrive. 
The Houses obstructed the Forts observing us 
and were not AUarmed as I expected." As 



George Rogers Clark 57 

for the Indians, they quickly withdrew out of 
range, to await the issue of the coming fight 
between the Big Knives and the red-coats. 

At sundown, Clark divided his party into 
two sections ; he commanded one, and Bowman 
yy^^ the other. There was now order and 

attack on. regularity, for the drill which the 
men had taken at Kaskaskia was be- 
ginning to tell. At seven o'clock, Bowman's 
men surrounded the town, while Clark's pushed 
through to the fort. The Creoles greeted them 
with cheers as with swinging gait they marched 
up through the village street, and freely gave 
them assistance and much-needed ammunition. 
Even the Indians, in their admiration of the 
bold, leather-clad Virginians, offered to take 
a hand. " A considerable number of British 
Indians made their escape out of Town. The 
Kickepous and Peankeshaws to the amount of 
about one hundred, that was in Town immedi- 
ately Armed themselves in our favour and 
Marched to attact the Fort. I thanked the 
Chief for his intended service, told him the 
III consequence of our People being mingled 
in the dark ... he approved of it and sent 
off his Troops . . . and staid with me giving 
all the Information he could." 

The garrison were still unprepared. Not a 



58 Essays in Western History 

word of this transformation scene had come up 
from the village. Hamilton thought that the 
first shots were fired by drunken Indians, but 
to his consternation he soon saw in the brilliant 
moonlight that the stockade was surrounded 
by American borderers, and that there was 
serious business at hand. At the angles of 
the palisaded fort were strong blockhouses, 
the second floors of which were eleven feet 
above the ground, and in each of these were 
cannons and swivels. Clark had no cannon, 
for his artillery, taken from the Kaskaskia fort, 
had soon been forced to abandon the march ; 
but his riflemen — each of whom was an expert 
shot and well sheltered '' behind Houses, Pal- 
ings, and Ditches, &c., &c.," and " a consider- 
able intrenchment before the gate where I 
Intended to plant my Artillery when Arrived " 
— finally silenced the guns by pouring such 
a constant fire through the loopholes that it 
was impossible for the gunners to withstand it. 
The Americans themselves were unharmed. 
*' Fine sport for the sons of Liberty," exultantly 
wrote Bowman in his diary for that day. 

In the matter of marksmanship, the British 
and the French-Canadian militia were no match 
for the backwoodsmen, and by sunrise it was 
evident that the long night's siege had sadly 



George Rogers Clark 59 

crippled the garrison, although ** As soon as 
daylight, the Fort beg^ to play her small 
arms very briskly." "^ 

At nine o'clock, Clark's men paused to take 
" a breakfast, it being the only [regular] meal 
Clark's of victuals since the i8th inst" — six 
■warning ^^y^^ Meanwhile Clark sent a white 
flag to Hamilton with a letter inviting him to 
save himself from " the impending storm that 
now threatens," and surrender his garrison and 
stores. But that officer tartly declined ''to 
be awed into an action unworthy of British 
subjects," and thereupon the firing was hotly 
resumed. 

In the course of the morning a party of 
French and Indian scouts, in the employ of the 
Terroriz- ^^itish. Came noisily into town with 
ingthe scalps and prisoners from a recent 
enemy foray agaiust American settlers. Be- 

fore they discovered the changed situation, 
Clark's men set upon them, killing and scalp- 
ing two and partly wounding most of the 
others. Six were captured, and then, in the 
sight of the garrison, deliberately tomahawked 
and thrown into the river. This served the 
double purpose of inspiring terror among the 
other Indians, by showing them how power- 
less the English were to aid them, and of 



6o Essays in Westcr7t History 

creating a panic among the French vohinteers 
within the fort. The English themselves re- 
mained stubborn, but they were few in number. 
After two hours of fighting, during which 
several men in the fort were wounded from 
Clark shots coming through the portholes, 

demands Hamilton sent out a flag and re- 

tincondi- /— i i 

tionaisiir- qucstcd a trucc of three days. Clark 
render responded with the following note, 
demanding unconditional surrender : ^ 

Colonel Clarks Compliments to M' Ham- 
ilton and begs leave to inform him that 
Co- Clark will not agree to any Other 
Terms than that of M*: Hamilton's Suren- 
dering himself and Garrison, Prisoners at 
Discretion. 

If M' Hamilton is Desirous of a Confer- 
ance with Co' Clark he will meet him at 
the Church with Capt" Helms. 

Feby 24**? 1779. G. R. Clark 

Hamilton agreed to the conference, which 
was held in the little French church. The 
English commander sought to soften the terms, 
but Clark was unyielding. '' Towards the close 
of the Evening," articles were signed, by which 

1 The original is in the Draper MSS., and is reproduced 
in the present volume in facsimile. 



George Rogers Clark 6 1 

Hamilton agreed to deliver to Clark at ten 
o'clock the following morning, Fort Sackville 
— the English name of Vincennes post — "as 
it is at present with all the Stores, &c . . . 
The Garrisson are to deliver themselves up as 
Prisoners of War and March out with their 
Arms and Acoutriments, &c., &c . . . Three 
days time be allowed the Garrison to settle 
their Accompts with the Traders and Inhab- 
itants of this Place . . . The Officers of the 
Garrisson to be allowed their necessary Bag- 
gage, &c., &c." To these articles, Hamilton 
attached a memorandum stating that they were 
" Agreed to for the following reasons : The 
remoteness from succors ; the state and quan- 
tity of provisions, &c. ; unanimity of officers 
and men in its expediency; the honourable 
terms allowed ; and, las:tly, the confidence in 
a generous enemy." 

At the appointed hour on the morning 
of the twenty-fifth, we learn from Bowman's 
The diary that " Lieutenant Governor 

Hamilton and his garrison of about 
eighty men marched out [past Bowman and 
Mc Carty's companies], whilst Col. Clark, 
Captains Williams' and Worthington's com- 
panies marched into the Fort, relieved the 
Gentries, hoisted the American colours, secured 



62 Essays m Western History 

all the arms." Thirteen guns were fired, as a 
national salute; but in the midst of the jubi- 
lation a premature explosion of cartridges 
occurred in one of the batteries, by which 
Bowman, Worthington, and four privates were 
severely burned. The fort was rechristened 
" Patrick Henry," in honor of the Governor of 
Virginia, in whose service the little band of 
conquerors were enlisted. 

The capture of Vincennes was one of the 
most notable and heroic achievements in Amer- 
^ , . ican history. Clark had conducted 

An heroic •' 

achieve- a forced marcli of about two hundred 
^^^^* and thirty miles through almost un- 

heard-of difficulties. With a small party of 
ragged and half-famished militiamen, nearly 
half of whom were Creoles,^ he had captured, 
in the heart of a strange and hostile country, 
without the aid of his artillery, a heavy stock- 
ade mounted by cannons and swivels and 
manned by a trained garrison. It was a bold 
scheme, of his own planning, and skilfully 

1 In the Draper MSS. is a letter from John Rogers to 
Major Jonathan Clark, written May 6, 1779, while en route to 
Virginia with the detachment guarding Hamilton and the 
other prisoners. He says, " We made loi prisoners and had 
only 130 men 60 of which were French there was seven men 
wounded in the Fort and Seven Indians killed that were 
Comeing in with two prisoners." 



George Rogers Clark 63 

carried out. At his back were some of the 
best fighting men on the border, but with him 
rests the principal credit. 

Hamilton, after being sharply reprimanded 
by Clark for sending scalping parties against 
the frontier settlements, was early in March 
sent in irons to Virginia,^ with twenty-six of 
his fellows; the others were paroled, for Clark 
had no means of subsisting them. 

Captain Helm, now released from captivity, 
ascended the Wabash with fifty men, and two 
days before the departure of the prisoners to 
Virginia intercepted a flotilla of seven batteaux 
coming to Vincennes from Detroit, with " Pro- 
visions, Indian goods, &c." — $50,000 worth, 
guarded by forty French volunteers headed by 
two of Hamilton's officers. The booty was 
divided among the Virginians, who considered 
themselves richly recompensed for their task. 

1 Hamilton was kept in close confinement at Williams- 
burg, and despite the protests of the British the State of 
Virginia " refused to exchange him on any terms " until 
towards the close of the Revolution. Washington wrote 
that he "had issued proclamations and approved of prac- 
tises, which were marked with cruelty towards the people 
that fell into his hands, such as inciting the Indians to bring 
in scalps, putting prisoners in irons, and giving them up to 
be the victims of savage barbarity." He was Lieutenant- 
Governor of Quebec in 1785, and died as Governor of Domin- 
ica in 1796. 



64 Essays in Western History 

And now came welcome news from Gov- 
ernor Patrick Henry, thanking the troops for 
Illinois a ^^eir capture of Kaskaskia, the news 
Virginian of which had been some months in 
corm y reaching Virginia, and promising them 
a good reward.^ As a direct consequence of 
their victory, and the taking of the oath of 
fealty by the inhabitants, Illinois had been con- 
stituted by the legislature (November, 1778) 
as a county of Virginia, and John Todd, an old 
Kentucky friend of Clark, was commissioned 
as county lieutenant. This appointment was 
especially welcomed by Clark, for he did not 
enjoy the details of civil administration which 
had thus far fallen to his lot. "The Civil 
Departm'- In the Illinois," he wrote to Mason, 
" had heretofore rob'd me of too much of my 
time that ought to be spent in Military reflec- 
tion, I was now likely to be relieved by Col'- 
Jn Todd appointed by the Government for 
that purpose ; I was anctious for his Arrival 
& happy in his appointment." 

A few days later, some of the long-expected 
reinforcements arrived from Virginia and Ken- 
Beiated tucky ; but uot morc than half of the 
Zicnts'^'^' number expected by Clark, who felt 

1 In after years, they received 150,000 acres of land in 
Ohio, opposite Louisville. 



George Rogers Clark 65 

compelled by this fact and a fresh outbreak 
of the Indians of Ohio, to postpone his cher- 
ished expedition against Detroit. After estab- 
lishing small garrisons at Vincennes, Cahokia, 
and Kaskaskia, and making several impor- 
tant treaties with the Illinois and Wisconsin 
Indians, he introduced Todd to the people at 
Kaskaskia, the county seat, on the twelfth of 
May, and then retired to his principal head- 
quarters at the Falls of the Ohio, " where I 
Arrived safe on the 20th day of August." 

We have dwelt in such detail upon Clark's 
romantic expedition for the conquest of the 
Results Northwest, that we must close with 
achieved but a brief summary of the results 
achieved. During the remainder of the Revo- 
lutionary struggle, the Indian tribes between 
the Wabash and the Mississippi were in large 
part friendly to the Americans. The red men 
feared Clark, the border men fairly adored 
him, and the French were awed by and re- 
spected him — although the Creoles were at 
all times restive under his stern discipline and 
his cavalier method of forcing from them mili- 
tary supplies, and sighed for the time when 
France might once more control the Mississippi 
Valley. He was admittedly the one man on 
the frontier who by the exercise of his per- 
5 



66 Essays in Western History 

sonal influence could keep the country in 
order, and counteract threatened British at- 
tempts to regain their lost hold. His fame 
spread through the Southern tribes, and the 
British colony at Natchez feared lest he should 
direct a movement against them. He estab- 
lished Fort Jefferson on the Mississippi, on the 
border line between Kentucky and Tennessee. 
In 1780, he marshalled the men of Kentucky 
in one last assault against the hostile tribes 
east of the Wabash, quelling them at Chilli- 
cothe and Piqua, thus insuring peace for 
another twelvemonth. The following year, 
now brigadier-general of the Virginia militia 
west of the mountains, he was in the mother 
colony, and at the head of a hastily-organized 
force of two hundred and forty riflemen am- 
buscaded a party of English troops on the 
James River. A year later, he led forth a 
thousand tall Kentucky riflemen to ravage the 
Indian villages on the Big Miami, in retaliation 
for the disastrous raid made that summer by 
Brant, McKee, Girty, and other British-Indian 
leaders. 

All this while, Clark held to his designs 

j,j^^ upon Detroit. He made a trip to 

Detroit Virginia to interest public men in his 

froject scheme, and greatly alarmed the Eng- 



George Rogers Clark 67 

lish by his preparations for the proposed ex- 
pedition ; but the coast colonies were to the 
last too busy with their own affairs to grant 
him the necessary assistance, and, much to his 
disappointment, what he wished to make the 
crowning achievement of his career was never 
carried out. 

Although Clark was of great service to Ken- 
tucky and Virginia, in keeping in order Indians 
and French along the Ohio frontier during the 
remainder of the Revolutionary War, his repu- 
ciark's tation, and consequently his power, 
power \^^^ reached its climax with the cap- 

ture of Vmcennes. After a few years, 
overcome by the drink habit and nettled by 
what he considered the ingratitude of the Re- 
public in not properly rewarding his services, 
he became morose, and while always honpred, 
was able to exercise comparatively small influ- 
ence among the younger generation. 

Not long after the definitive treaty of peace 
with Great Britain, when Clark was still in 
touch with the principal men of the East, 
Thomas Jefferson made to him a proposition 
Jefferson's which is especially interesting at the 
esting present time — no less than that of 

heading an expedition to explore a 
route to the Pacific. In a letter from Annapolis 



i?itci 
proposition 



68 Essays in Western History 

(December 4, 1783),^ Jefferson writes to Clark, 
thanking him for sending certain specimens of 
" shells & seeds," and for promising '* as many 
of the different species of bones, teeth & tucks of 
the Mammoth as can now be found " — for the 
great statesman, then in retirement, was assidu- 
ously collecting for his private scientific museum 
at Monticello. He then adds : *' I find they 
have subscribed a very large sum of money 
in England for exploring the country from 
the Mississippi to California, they pretend it is 
only to promote knolege. I am afraid they 
have thoughts of colonising into that quarter 
some of us have been talking here in a feeble 
way of making the attempt to search that coun- 
try, but I doubt wether we have enough of 
that kind of spirit to raise the money, how 
would you like to lead such a party? tho I 
am afraid our prospect is not worth asking the 
question." Nothing came of this offer; but 
just twenty years later Clark's younger brother, 
William, together with Meriwether Lewis, 
started under Jefferson's auspices upon a simi- 
lar expedition, which won for them imperish- 
able renown. 

In 1793, Clark imprudently accepted a com- 
mission as major-general from Genet, the 

1 The original is in the Draper MSS. 



George Rogers Clark 69 

French diplomatic agent at Washington, and 
sought to raise a filibustering legion in the 
West, to overcome, in behalf of the French, the 
Clark and Spanish settlements on the Missis- 
Genet sippi,^ in coopcration with a similar 

expedition from Georgia against the Floridas. 
At this time the Kentuckians were much con- 
cerned because Spain, which held the mouth 
and the west bank of the Mississippi, would not 
allow them the free navigation of that river, so^ 
essential to the marketing of their crops ; they 
were incensed at the United States government, 
which appeared to neglect these and other 
Western interests. Genet, taking advantage of 
this widespread dissatisfaction among the bor- 
derers, sought their aid in ousting Spain from 
the mouth of the river and along the Gulf, and 
replacing her by France. The intrigue was 
ill managed by the blustering Genet, who also 
had insufficient financial resources, and the 
French fleet was so occupied with affairs in 
San Domingo that it could not cooperate. 
Nevertheless Clark, despite his failing powers, 
was making quite effective headway in Ken- 

1 See the admirably full treatment of this episode, by 
Prof. F. J. Turner, in his " Correspondence of Clark and 
Genet," first report of the Historical M.SS. Commission, 
Amer. Histor. Ass'n Report for 1896, pp. 930-1107. 



70 Essays in Western History 

tucky, where he had two hundred men under 
arms, when President Washington, in the inter- 
ests of neutrahty, suddenly put a stop to the 
conspiracy, and at the same time Genet was 
recalled by his government. Had Genet and 
Clark successfully carried out their plans, 
France would have regained a substantial foot- 
hold in the Mississippi Valley, and the course 
of Western history been materially altered. 
Washington thus rendered to the West, indeed 
to the Republic at large, a service of inesti- 
mable importance. 

Clark's later years were spent in comparative 
neglect at his simple home in the then small 
village of Qi94:l^syjll,ej in view of Corn Island, 
which had been his military base during the 

time when he won the Northwest for 
lata- years ^^^" American cause. The story is 

told, although not well established, 
that when commissioners sought him in his old 
age, bearing a richly ornamented sword voted 
him by the State of Virginia, he received the 
compliments of his visitors in sullen silence. 
Then bursting forth in rage, he is said to have 
broken the weapon with his crutch, crying: 
" When Virginia needed a sword, I gave her 
one. She sends me now a toy. I want bread ! " 
Dying in i8i8 at his sister's home near Louis- 



George Rogers Clark 71 

villc, his ashes He at Cave Hill cemetery, in 
that city, where he is accounted the most 
honored of Kentucky's dead. 

It is difficult to overestimate the importance 

of Clark's conquest. Lord Dunmore's War 

was one step ; it extended Virginia's 

hiiportance / n i 

of the '* sphere of mfluence westward to 

conquest ^j^^ Muskiugum. But Clark, of his 
own motion and largely at the expense of his 
private fortune, chiefly supporting his soldiers 
on the country and paying them from its 
plunder, in a series of brilliant achievements 
captured the Southern key-points of the great 
Northwest, and held them with military force 
and his strong personal influence until the 
treaty of peace with England in 1783. 

The English peace commissioners at first 
claimed the Northwest as a part of Canada; 
Effect on ^ut throughout the protracted nego- 
the treaty tiations Jay and FrankHn persisted 
of peace .^ demanding the country which 
Clark had so gallantly won and was still 
holding. What appears to have had more 
effect upon the English treaty commissioners 
than the fact of miHtary occupancy, was Frank- 
lin's argument that unless room for growth 
were given the United States, a permanent 
peace could not be expected between the two 



72 Essays in Western History 

countries — that the tide of emigration west- 
ward over the Alleghanies could not be 
stemmed ; that the rough, masterful borderers 
could not be restrained from intrenching on 
the English wilderness, and a never-ending 
frontier fight, disastrous to all concerned, 
would be inevitable. The situation was ad- 
mitted. Later, Lord Shelburne, who was 
chiefly responsible for yielding this point, 
reinforced his position by maintaining in Parlia- 
ment that after all the fur-trade of the North- 
west was not worth fighting for, and the fur-trade 
was all that Englishmen wished of that vast 
area. Nevertheless, Jay and Franklin could 
have found no footing for their contention, had 
Clark not been in actual possession of the 
country. It certainly was a prime factor in the 
situation. 

Aside from this, we are indebted to George 
Rogers Clark for a series of military achieve- 
ments nowhere, all conditions considered, 
excelled in the proud annals of American 
heroism ; and for a glowing inspiration to 
patriotic endeavor, that will never die so long 
as our youth are instructed in the history of 
the land. 



II 



THE DIVISION OF THE NORTHWEST 
INTO STATES 



II 



THE DIVISION OF THE NORTHWEST 
INTO STATES 

WASHINGTON, ''first in war, first in 
peace, and first in the hearts of his 
countrymen," was first also in making sugges- 
tions as to the boundary lines of Northwestern 
Was/ung. States. September 7, 1783, we find 
ion's sicg- him writing to James Duane, then a 
gesiwn member of Congress from New York, 
regarding the future of the country beyond the 
Ohio.^ After giving some wise suggestions as 
to the management of both Indians and whites 
in that vast region, he declares that the time is 
ripe for the blocking out of a State there. The 
veteran surveyor says : " From the mouth of 
the Great Miami River, w'^ empties into the 
Ohio, to its confluence with the Mad River, 
thence by a Line to the Miami fort and Village 
on the other Miami River, w'^'' empties into 

1 Ford's Writings of Washingtouy x., pp. 310, 311. 



76 Essays m Western History 

Lake Erie, and Thence by a Line to include the 
Settlement of Detroit, would, with Lake Erie 
to the noward, Pensa. to the eastwd., and the 
Ohio to the soward, form a governm' sufficiently- 
extensive to fulfil all the public engagements, 
and to receive moreover a large population 
by emigrants." He continues : ** Were it not 
for the purpose of comprehending the Settle- 
ment of Detroit within the Jurisd" of the new 
GovernmS a more compact and better shaped 
district for a State would be, for the line to 
proceed from the Miami Fort and Village 
along the River of that name to Lake Erie ; 
leaving in that case the settlement of Detroit, 
and all the Territory no. of the Rivers Miami 
and St. Joseph's between the Lakes Erie, St. 
Clair, Huron, and Michigan, to form hereafter 
another State equally large, compact, and 
water-bounded." 

Thus did Washington, with that clear-head- 
edness and far-sightedness which caused him 
in practical matters like this to outrank most 
Americans of his day, roughly map out the 
present States of Ohio and Michigan. Five 
weeks later (October 15), Congress adopted 
this second suggestion almost literally, in estab- 
lishing a region for colonization north of the 
Ohio, into which no red man was thereafter to 



Division of the Northwest "jy 

be allowed a foothold — if the law could stop 
him.^ 

Early the following March, Congress in- 
structed a committee of which Thomas Jeffer- 




jErrcRSOM's plan,i7b'a. 



Jefferson's ^on was chairman, to fashion a plan 
plan of government for the entire North- 

west, — or, as it was then called, the Western 

1 Secret Journals of Con^^rcss, i., p. 258. Duane was chair- 
man of the committee reporting these resolutions. 



y8 Essays m Westerji History 

Territory, — which had now become public 
domain through the surrender of the land 
claims of those States which had hitherto 
stoutly held that they owned everything west 
of their coast lines, as far as the Pacific 
Ocean. To Jefferson is to be given the credit 
for drafting the report of this committee, which 
was first taken up by Congress on the nine- 
teenth of April, and after some amendment 
adopted on the twenty-third. The original 
draft ^ has come down to us in history, famous, 
among other features, for Jefferson's proposi- 
tion to divide the Northwest, on parallels of 
latitude, into ten States, most of them to bear 
fantastic names which smack of the classical 
revival then deeply affecting American thought: 
Sylvania, Michigania, Assenisipia,Illinoia, Poly- 
potamia, Chersonesus, Metropotamia, Saratoga, 
Pelisipia, and Washington. While Congress 
practically accepted his scheme of territorial 
division, each section was wisely left to choose 
its own title when it should enter the Union.^ 
These resolutions were in force until the 

^ In the handwriting of Jefferson, and now preserved at 
Washington, in the archives of the Department of State. 

2 See Randall's Life of Jefferson, i., pp. 397, 398, for full 
text of the resolutions as adopted. They are also given in 
Wis. Hist. Colls., xi., p. 61. 



Division of the Northwest 79 

Congress of the Confederation, in session at 
Ordinance Philadelphia, adopted July 13, 1787, 
(7/1787 '<An ordinance for the government 
of the Territory of the United States north- 




west of the river Ohio." What thereafter 
was familiarly known as the Northwest Ter- 
ritory lay west of Pennsylvania and north and 
west of the Ohio River. Its western limit was 
the Mississippi River, which had been estab- 



8o Essays in Western History 

lished by the treaty of Paris (February lo, 
1763) as the boundary between the British 
possessions and the French province of 
Louisiana, and confirmed as the western 
boundary of the United States by our first 
treaty with Great Britain (September 3, 1783) ; 
the northern Hmit was the Hne between Brit- 
ish America and the United States. The land 
embraced in this vast tract was, in great part, 
the Virginia cession, made in 1784; to the 
north of that lay the strip ceded by Connecticut 
in 1786 and 1800; farther north, the Massa- 
chusetts cession of 1785; while the territory 
north of latitude 43^ 43' 12" had been acquired 
from Great Britain in 1783.^ 

The fifdi article of the Ordinance was as 
follows : *' There shall be formed in the said 
The famous territory not less than three nor 
boimdary morc than five States ; and the 
boundaries of the States, as soon 
as Virginia shall alter her act of cession and 
consent to the same,^ shall become fixed and 
established as follows, to wit : The Western 
State, in the said territory, shall be bounded 
by the Mississippi, the Ohio, and the Wabash 
rivers; a direct line drawn from the Wabash 

1 See map in McMaster's Hist. People U. S.^ ii. 

2 Which she did in 1788. 



Division of the Northwest 8 1 

and Post Vincents [Vincennes, Indiana], due 
north, to the territorial hne between the United 
States and Canada ; and by the said territorial 
line to the Lake of the Woods and Mississippi. 
The middle State shall be bounded by the 
said direct line, the Wabash from Post Vin- 
cents to the Ohio, by the Ohio, by a direct 
line drawn due north from the mouth of the 
Great Miami to the said territorial line, and by 
the said territorial line. The Eastern State 
shall be bounded by the last-mentioned direct 
line, the Ohio, Pennsylvania, and the said ter- 
ritorial line : Provided^ however, And it is 
further understood and declared, that the 
boundaries of these three States shall be sub- 
ject so far to be altered, that, if congress shall 
hereafter find it expedient, they shall have au- 
thority to form one or two States in that part 
of the said territory which lies north of an 
east and west line drawn through the southerly 
bend or extreme of Lake Michigan, And when- 
ever any of the said States shall have sixty 
thousand free inhabitants therein, such State 
shall be admitted, by its delegates, into the 
Congress of the United States, on an equal 
footing with the original States, in all respects 
whatever." 

In order to give the Ordinance an assurance 
6 



82 Essays hi Wester ft History 

of stability, it was solemnly provided, in section 
14 of the preamble, that: "The following 
articles shall be considered as articles of com- 
pact, between the original States and the 
people and States in the said Territory, and 
forever remain unalterable^ imless by common 
consent'' It will be interesting to see how 
Congress finally divided the Old Northwest 
into States ; and why it was that while five 
commonwealths were formed therefrom as pro- 
vided by the Ordinance, in the end none of 
them was bounded exactly as stipulated in 
the famous fifth article. 

Twelve years later,^ the Congress of the 

United States, which had succeeded the Con- 

, gress of the Confederation, made its 

Erection of ^ 

indiajia first division of the Northwest Terri- 
Territory ^^^^ ^ ^j^^ ^^^ provided: "That 

from and after the fourth day of July next, all 
that part of the Territory of the United States 
northwest of the Ohio River which lies to the 
westward of a line beginning at the Ohio, oppo- 
site to the mouth of the Kentucky River, and 
running thence to Fort Recovery [near the 

1 Act approved May 7, 1800. The Ordinance itself had 
been confirmed by act of Congress approved August 7, 17S9. 

2 See St. Clair's letter to Harrison, on the division of the 
Northwest Territory, St. Clair Papers, ii., pp. 489, 490. 



Division of the Northwest 83 

present Greenville, Ohio], and thence north until 
it shall intersect the territorial line between 
the United States and Canada, shall, for the 
purposes of temporary government, constitute a 




separate Territory, and be called the Indiana 
Territory." The country east of this line was 
still to be called the Northwest Territory, with 
its seat of government at Chillicothe ; while 
Vincennes was to be the seat of government 



84 Essays in Western History 

for Indiana Territory. That portion of the 
hne running from the point on the Ohio, oppo- 
site the mouth of the Kentucky, northeastward 
to Fort Recovery, was designed to be but a 
temporary boundary, it being one of the Hnes 
estabhshed between the white settlements and 
the Indians, by the treaty of Greenville, July 

30, 1795- 

The act of Congress approved April 30, 1802, 
enabhng " the people of the eastern division " 
Admission of the Northwest Territory (Ohio) to 
of Ohio draft a State constitution, obliged 
them to accept as their northern boundary " an 
east and west line drawn through the southerly 
extreme of Lake Michigan," in accordance 
with the limits prescribed by the original ordi- 
nance. In the State constitutional convention, 
held at Chillicothe in November that year, this 
line had, without a murmur, been acceded to in 
committee, when suddenly it came to the ears 
of the members that an experienced trapper, 
then in the village, claimed for Lake Michigan 
a more southerly head than had been given to 
it by the majority of the map-makers. 

It appears that the committee of Congress 
which drafted the Ordinance of 1787 obtained 
from the Department of State a copy of 
Mitchell's map, which had been published in 



Division of the Northwest 85 

1755 by the British Lords Commissioners for 
Trade and Plantations in America. This placed 
the southern bend of Lake Michigan at 42° 20 '. 
A pencilled line thereon, evidently made by 
a member of the committee, passes due east 
from the bend and intersects the international 
line at a point between River Raisin and 
Detroit. It was this chart which the trapper 
claimed to be incorrect.^ The Chillicothe con- 
vention became alarmed at the report, and 
made haste to attach a proviso to the boundary 
article, as follows : " Provided always, and it is 
hereby fully understood and declared by this con- 
ventiouy That if the southerly bend or extreme 
of Lake Michigan should extend so far south, 
that a line drawn due east from it should not 
intersect Lake Erie, or if it should intersect the 
said Lake Erie east of the mouth of the Miami 
River of the lake, then, and in that case, with 
the assent of the Congress of the United States, 
the northern boundary of this State shall be 

1 Burnet's Notes on Northwest Territory (1847), p. 360. 
Mitchell's error was perpetuated in later maps by other car- 
tographers, notably in Povvnall's chart (1779). Had the 
library been reasonably well equipped, the committee might 
have had access to one published by Thomas Ilutchins 
in 1778, nine years before the passage of the Ordinance. 
Ilutchins placed the southern bend about where it was 
afterwards proved to be by Talcott's survey — 41° 37' 07.9". 



86 Essays in Wester7t History 

established by, and extending to, a direct line, 
running from the southern extremity of Lake 
Michigan to the most northerly cape of the 
Miami bay," etc. 

*' The eastern division " of the Northwest 
Territory, now organized under the name of 
the State of Ohio, was formally admitted as 
such to the Union, by act approved February 
19, 1803. Nothing was said in the recognition 
act relative to the boundary ; it was taken for 
granted by the Ohio people that the proviso 
was accepted. 

On the eleventh of January, 1805, an act of 

Congress was approved, erecting the Terri- 

, tory of Michigan out of " all that 

Erection of -^ ° 

Michigan part of the Indiana Territory which 
Territory jj^^ north of a line drawn east from 
the southerly bend or extreme, of Lake Michi- 
gan, until it shall Intersect Lake Erie, and 
east of a line drawn from the said southerly 
bend through the middle of said lake to Its 
northern extremity, and thence due north to 
the northern boundary of the United States." 
This was, In short, the present Southern Pen- 
insula of Michigan, with a southern boundary 
as established by the Ordinance of 1787, to- 
gether with that portion of the upper penin- 
sula lying east of the meridian of Mackinac. 



Division of the Northwest 87 

Congress had admitted Ohio to the Union 
with a tacit recognition of the northern bound- 
ary laid down in her constitutional proviso; 
yet so little thought had been given to the 




matter, and geographical knowledge of the 
West was still so vague, that this circumstance 
had been overlooked, and Michigan Territory 
was allowed a southern limit which, while in 
strict accordance with the Ordinance, seriously 



88 



Essays in Western History 



overlapped the territory assigned to Ohio. Thus, 
when, in later years, the location of the south- 
erly bend of Lake Michigan was determined, a 
serious boundary dispute arose, Michigan claim- 




ing the Ordinance as a compact which could 
not be broken by Congress without common 
consent; while Ohio tenaciously clung to the 
strip of country which the constitution-makers 
at Chillicothe had in the eleventh hour secured 



Division of the Northwest 89 

for her. The wedge-shaped strip in dispute 
averaged six miles in width, across Ohio, em- 
braced some four hundred and sixty-eight 
square miles, and included the lake-port of 
Toledo and the mouth of the Maumee River, 
the possession of which was deemed well worth 
quarrelling over. Congress passed an act for 
determining the boundary (May 20, 18 12), 
but owing to trouble with Great Britain the 
lines were not run until 18 18, and then not 
satisfactorily. July 14, 1832, another act of 
Congress for the settlement of the northern 
Hmit of Ohio was passed ; and as a result of 
extensive observations by Captain A. Talcott 
of the United States Engineer Corps, that offi- 
cer was able to report in detail, in January, 
1834, and again in November, 1835,^0 the effect 
that the southern bend of Lake Michigan is in 
latitude 41° 37' 07.9", while the north cape 
of Maumee Bay is in 41° 44' 02.4''. 

Michigan had in 1834 begun to urge her 
claims to statehood, insisting on the south- 
ern boundary prescribed for the fourth and 
.^. ,. fifth States by the ordinance. Vir- 

Michigan- . . ^ i i • r 

Ohio gniia, whose consent as the chiet 

boundary land-givcr had been necessary to the 
legalizing of that document, was importuned 

1 Soiate Docs., No. i, 24th Cong., ist sess., vol. i., p. 203. 



90 Essays in Western History 

by Governor Mason to intercede in behalf of 
the peninsula Territory. The officials of the 
Old Dominion were in accord with the move- 
ment, but this fact failed to produce any effect 
on Congress, for the political sympathy of the 
actual State of Ohio was just then more impor- 
tant to the dominant party than the possible 
good-will of the projected State of Michigan. 

Without waiting for an enabling act, a con- 
vention held at Detroit in May and June, 1835, 
adopted a State constitution for submission to 
Congress, demanding entry into the Union 
" in conformity to the fifth article of the ordi- 
nance " of 1787 — of course the boundaries 
sought being those established by that article. 
During the summer there were popular dis- 
turbances in the disputed territory, and some 
gunpowder harmlessly wasted. In December, 
President Jackson in a special message laid 
the matter before Congress. Congress quietly 
determined to " arbitrate " the quarrel by giv- 
ing to Ohio the disputed tract, and offering 
Michigan, by way of partial recompense, the 
whole of what is to-day her Upper Peninsula.^ 
Michigan, however, did not want the sup- 
posedly barren and worthless country to her 
northwest, protested long and loud against 

1 Act approved June 15, 1836. 



Division of the Northwest 9 1 

what she deemed to be an outrage, and de- 
clared that she had no community of interest 
with the northern peninsula, being for half of 
the year separated from it by insurmountable 
natural barriers. Moreover, she asserted, it 
rightfully belonged to the fifth State to be 
formed out of the Northwest Territory. But 
Congress persisted in making this settlement 
of the quarrel one of the conditions precedent 
to the admission of Michigan into the Union. 
In September, 1836, a State convention, called 
for the sole purpose of deciding the question, 
rejected the proposition on the ground that 
Congress had no right, according to the terms 
of the Ordinance, to annex such a condition. 
A second convention, however, approved of it 
(December 15), and Congress promptly ac- 
cepted this decision as final.^ Thus Michigan 
came into the sisterhood of States, January 
26, 1837, with the territorial limits which she 
to-day possesses.^ 

In following the fortunes of Michigan, we 
have necessarily run somewhat ahead of our 
story. When Michigan Territory was erected 

^ Hough's Amer. Const., i., p. 663. 

2 The arguments on the Ohio-Michigan claims will be 
found at length m Seriate Docs., No. 211, vol. iii., 1835-36, 
and Reports of Corns., No. 380, vol. ii., 1835-36. 



92 Essays in Western History 

in 1805, Indiana Territory had been left with 
the Mississippi River as its western border, the 
Ohio as its southern, the international bound- 
ary and the south line of Michigan as its 




northern, while its eastern limits were the west 
line of Ohio, the middle of Lake Michigan, and 
the meridian of Mackinac. This included the 
present States of Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, 
and the greater part of Michigan's Upper 
Peninsula. 



Division of the Northwest 93 

The next division was ordained by act of 
Congress approved February 3, 1809, when 
Erection of ^^^^ portion of Indiana Territory 
Illinois lying west of the lower Wabash River 
Territory ^^^ ^^^^ meridian of Vincennes was 
erected into the Territory of Illinois. Indiana 
was thus left with her present boundaries, 
except that on the south side she owned a 
funnel-shaped strip of water and of land just 
west of the middle of Lake Michigan, between 
the Vincennes meridian and the then western 
boundary of Michigan Territory — what is now, 
roughly speaking, the County of Door, in Wis- 
consin, together with the Counties of Delta, 
Alger, and Schoolcraft, and the greater part of 
Chippewa and Mackinac, in Michigan. 

When Indiana was admitted to the Union 
(act approved April 19, 18 16), her northern 
boundary was established by Congress on a 
line running due east of a point in the middle 
of Lake Michigan ten miles north of the south- 
ern extreme of the lake. This was recognized 
as a distinct violation of the great Ordinance ; 
but the excuse was offered that Indiana must 
be given a share of the lake coast, and as there 
were then no important harbors or towns in- 
volved, Michigan made no serious objection to 
this particular encroachment on her territory. 



94 Essays in Western History 

The contraction of the northern bounds of 
Indiana, however, left unclaimed the before- 
No Marl's "mentioned strip of water in Lake 
Land Michigan and the generous belt of 




OitWrtO •TOHms* 



APRIL 18, 1818, 



peninsula country to the north. Literally it 
was " No Man's Land." States and Territories 
had been formed around it, but these semi- 
insulated sections of ore and pine lands were 
claimed by none, such was the prevalent igno- 



Division of the Northwest 95 

ranee concerning the public domain in the 
then far Northwest. 

The act of April 18, 1818, enabling Illinois 
to become a State, abridged her territory to its 
present limits, and gave to Michigan " all that 
part of the territory of the United States lying 
north of the State of Indiana, and which was 
included in the former Indiana Territory, to- 
gether with that part of the Illinois Territory 
which is situated north of and not included 
within the boundaries prescribed by this act." 
By this statute, what we may call No Man's 
Land, and all of the Northwest Territory west 
of it, were ** for temporary purposes only" as- 
signed to Michigan Territory, which now em- 
braced all the country between the Mississippi 
River and Lakes Erie, St. Clair, and Huron, 
and lying north of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. 
iiUnois's '^^^ northern boundary of Illinois 
northern was fixcd at 42° 30', whicli is over 
ary sjxty-one milcs north of the southern 
bend of Lake Michigan, the southern boundary 
prescribed by the Ordinance for the fourth and 
fifth States to be formed out of the old North- 
west Territory. Thus were the express terms 
of the Ordinance, which had been declared to 
be *' forever unalterable except by common 
consent," again violated, without so much as 



96 Essays in Western History 

saying " by your leave " to the settlers west 
of Lake Michigan who lived north of 42° 30'. 
What was afterwards Wisconsin was thereby 
deprived, through the shrewd manipulation of 
Nathaniel Pope, Illinois's delegate in Congress 
at that time, of eight thousand five hundred 
square miles of rich agricultural and mining 
country and numerous lake-ports. Pope spe- 
ciously argued that Illinois must become inti- 
mately connected with the growing commerce 
of the Northern lakes, or else she would be led, 
from her commercial relations upon the great 
rivers trending to the South, to join a Southern 
confederacy in case the Union were disrupted.^ 
An act of Congress approved June 28, 1834, 
added to the Territory of Michigan, " for tem- 
Michigan PO^ary purposes," the lands lying 
spreads nortli of the State of Missouri and 
wes war between the Mississippi River on the 
east and the Missouri and White Earth ^ rivers 
on the west, which had been acquired from 
France in 1803 as a part of the Louisiana 

1 Annals of Congress, 18 18, vol. ii., p. 1677 ; Ford's Hist, 
of III., p, 22 ; Davidson and Struve's Hist, of III., p. 295. 

2 A small northern tributary of the Missouri having its 
source some thirty miles south of the international bound- 
ary; it empties into the Missouri near the western boundary 
of Mountraille County, Dakota, about eighty-five miles west 
of the meridian of Bismarck. 



Division of the Northwest 97 

Purchase.^ Michigan Territory now extended, 
therefore, from Detroit westward to a point 
eighty-five miles northwest of the site of the 
present city of Bismarck, Dakota. 

The people west of Lake Michigan had long 
been desirous of having a territorial govern- 
ment of their own. The seat of gov- 

Dissaiisfac- r n t • i • t- • i_ x. 

Hon west of cmmcnt of Michigan Territory was at 
^^^'^ ^^'^^"■- Detroit, six hundred miles from the 
^^^ centre of settlement west of the lake, 

and during half of the year nearly inaccessible 
therefrom; the laws of Michigan were practi- 
cally dead-letters among them ; civil machinery 
west of the lake was chiefly conspicuous for its 
absence, and there were commercial as well as 
sectional and poHtical jealousies between the 
people on either side of the great inland sea. 

As early as 1824, James Duane Doty, a 
federal judge living at Green Bay, had inter- 

1 The clause of this act relating to area is as follows : " All 
that part of the territory of the United States bounded on 
the east by the Mississippi river, on the south by the state 
of Missouri and a line drawn due west from the northwest 
corner of said state [then on the meridian of Kansas City] to 
the Missouri river; on the southwest and west by the Mis- 
souri river and the White Earth river, falling into the same; 
and on the north by the northern boundary of the United 
States, shall be, and hereby is, for the purpose of temporary 
government, attached to and made part of the Territory of 
Michigan." 

7 



98 Essays m Western History 

ested Senator Thomas H. Benton in a pro- 
jected '* Territory of Chippewau." The bilP 
was drawn by Doty and forwarded to Benton 
in November of that year, together with a peti- 
tion for its passage signed by the inhabitants 
of the proposed Territory. It is interesting to 




"Em. 



MICHiGAN, 

JUNE 28^ 182^. 



note the ideas prevalent among them at that 
time concerning the proper hmits of what is 
now Wisconsin. The boundaries sought by 
the Doty bill were: "All that part of the 
Michigan Territory included within the follow- 
ing boundaries, that is to say : On the south by 

1 Doty MSS., in the possession of the Wisconsin Histori- 
cal Society. 



Division of the Northwest 99 

the northern boundary Hne of the State of Illi- 
nois, crossing the Mississippi River at the head 
of Rock Island, and by the northern boundary 
h'ne of the State of Missouri ; on the west by 
the Missouri River ; on the north by the bound- 
ary line of the United States to the southern 
extremity of Drummond's Island at the mouth 
of the River St. Mary, and thence by a line 
running from said island to the southern ex- 
tremity of Bois Blanc Island in Lake Huron, 
thence by a line equally distant from the island 
and main land to the centre of the straits be- 
tween Lakes Michigan and Huron, and thence 
up the middle of the said straits and Lake Michi- 
gan to the northeastern corner oi the State of 
Illinois." 

Throughout the protracted agitation incident 
to this project. Judge Doty wrote numerous 
Protracted letters to influential congressmen, ex- 
agitation pianatory of the situation. In 1827, 
we find him willing to call the proposed new 
Territory " VViskonsin" in honor of its princi- 
pal river. In February, 1828, the house com- 
mittee on territories was committed to its favor, 
but it soon received a serious set-back from a 
memorial sent in by the people of Detroit, who 
strenuously objected to surrendering to the 

proposed new territory that portion of their 
L.of C. 



loo Essays in Western History 

Upper Peninsula which lay to the east of 
the Mackinac meridian.^ The memorialists 
showed that they were holding active com- 
mercial relations with the settlers around the 
straits of Mackinac, to whom they were also 
closely allied, socially and politically. 




ONTRCAL «. 

t-VlEMOEeCRT 
CMOMONEC- R. 



^2. ''-SO 
WiSCOWSIN, 

APRIL 20^ 183e. 



In 1830, the effort was renewed by Doty in 
a bill to establish the Territory of Huron, with 
the same boundaries as those prescribed for 
Chippewau.'^ Four years later, after several 

1 Michigan Herald, Detroit, February, 1828. 

2 In Washburne's Edwards Papers (pp. 439, 440) there is 
a letter from Hooper Warren, editor of the Galena Gazette, 
to Gov. Ninian Edwards, of Illinois, dated Galena, October 
6, 1829, in which he thus refers to letters on the boundary 



Division of the Northwest loi 

sessions of lobbying, a substitute was offered, 
entitled " A bill establishing the territorial 
government of Wisconsin," with boundaries 

question written by Doty to that paper : " I hope you have 
read the numbers of our Green Bay correspondent. He is 
Judge Duty. You are among others to whom he requested 
us to send the papers containing his essays. 1 7vant yoii to 
anszucr them. You will see that the whole of his arguments 
respecting Ohio and Indiana do not apply to Illinois, as our 
boundary has the assent of Congress, while that of the 
former states has not. I will further suggest to you that 
the Ordinance does not say that the east and west line 
from the southerly bend of Lake Michigan shall be the 
boundary ; but that congress may form one or more states 
north of that line — and would not the southern boundary 
of the state of Wisconsin at 42° 30' be in accordance with 
that injunction or permission ? Further, Illinois has a natural 
right to a port on Lake Michigan, which the old line would cut 
her off from. This subject is of more importance than you 
may think it is. A large portion, perhaps a majority, of the 
people here, are of Judge Doty's opinion, and are wishing 
and expecting the old line to be established. I have been in- 
formed that Judge D, has said that should a case of juris- 
diction come before him, he would decide against us. The 
contention in Michigan proper is for ten miles only, which 
Ohio and Indiana have got north of the ' east and west 
line.' " 

See Wis. Hist. Colls., x., pp. 236, 237, for instance of con- 
fusion existing, at this time, as to the location of the Wiscon- 
sin-Illinois boundary — the election commissioners of Jo 
Daviess County, Illinois, opening a poll at Platteville, Wis- 
consin. E. B. Washburne says, in connection with this 
fact : " The boundary line between Illinois and Michigan 
Territory was not officially defined until 1830." — Ed. 



I02 Essays in Western History 

the same as before, except that the country to 
the east of the Mackinac meridian was not now 
claimed, a House committee having reported 
in 1832 that ''the due Hne north from Mac- 
kinau should be retained as more in conso- 
nance with the Ordinance of 1787." ^ The bill 
hung fire on account of the Ohio-Michigan 
dispute, with the result that, as already stated, 
Wisconsin, the fifth and last division in the 
Northwest Territory, was stripped of the entire 
Upper Peninsula. The selected land line be- 
tween Wisconsin and Michigan — connecting 
the Montreal and Menominee rivers — appears 
to have been the suggestion, in 1834, of Sena- 
tor Preston of South Carolina.^ An old map of 
Wisconsin, then in vogue, erroneously showed 
a continuous water-course between those two 
points, thus making an island of the peninsula. 
The bill establishing the new Territory 
was approved April 20, 1836, Wisconsin 
, beincr therein assigned these limits : 

Erection of ° ° ^ 

Wisconsin " Bouudcd ou the cast by a line drawn 
Territory ^^^^ ^^^ northcast comcr of the State 
of Illinois, through the middle of Lake Michi- 
gan, to a point in the middle of said lake and 
opposite the main channel of Green Bay, and 

1 Governor Doty's Message, December 4, 1S43. 

2 Wis. Hist. Colls., iv., p. 352. 



Division of the NortJnuest 1 03 

through said channel and Green Bay to the 
mouth of the Menomonee River; thence 
through the middle of the main channel of 
said river to that head of said river nearest to 
the Lake of the Desert; thence in a direct line 




WISGOWSIN, 

JUitE 12| 1838. 



to the middle of said lake; tlience through the 
middle of the main channel of the Montreal 
River to its mouth ; thence with a direct line 
across Lake Superior to where the territorial 
line of the United States last touches said lake 
northwest; thence on the north with the said 



I04 Essays in Western History 

territorial line to the White Earth River; on 
the west by a line from the said boundary line 
following down the middle of the main channel 
of White Earth River to the Missouri River, 
and down the middle of the main channel of 
the Missouri River to a point due west from 
the northwest corner of the State of Missouri ; 
and on the south, from said point, due east to 
the northeast corner of the State of Missouri; 
and thence with the boundaries of the States 
of Missouri and Illinois, as already fixed by 
acts of Congress." 

It was Hobson's choice, with both Wisconsin 
and Michigan. Congress assumed the right 
to govern and divide the Northwest Territory 
to suit itself, regardless of the solemn compact 
of 1787, and there seemed nothing to do but 
submit. The future proved that Michigan had 
in the great northern peninsula been awarded 
more than an equivalent for the narrow belt of 
country lost to Ohio, and had no reason to 
grumble ; while Wisconsin lost in the trans- 
action a wide tract of territory which belongs 
to her geographically, and which had been 
assigned to her in the preliminary delibera- 
tions concerning the political division of the 
Northwest. But while the consent of Michigan 
had been formally asked and reluctantly given 



Division of the Northwest 105 

to this violation of the great Ordinance, that 
of Wisconsin was not sought, either as to her 
northeastern or her southern boundary. 

The matter of her southern boundary was 

the occasion of much uneasiness in Wisconsin 

. , between 1838 and 1846. We have 

Wtsconstii' 5 ^ ^ 

southerii seen that the act erecting that Terri- 
boundary ^^^^ (1836) rccognizcd the northern 
boundary of lUinois as estabHshed in 1818. 
But in December, 1838, the Wisconsin Legis- 
lature memorialized Congress, declaring that 
the determination of lUinois's northern bound- 
ary twenty years before was " directly in col- 
lision with, and repugnant to, the compact 
entered into by the original States, with people 
and states within the Northwestern Territory " ; 
and praying that, as a measure of justice, "the 
southern boundary of [Wisconsin] Territory 
may be so far altered as to include all the 
Country lying north of a line drawn due west 
from the southern extreme of Lake Michi- 
gan." The strip asked for was over sixty- 
one miles in width, embraced eight thousand, 
five hundred square miles of unusually fertile 
soil, many excellent water-powers, and the 
sites of Chicago, Rockford, Freeport, Galena, 
Oregon, Dixon, and several other prosperous 
towns. 



io6 Essays iii Western History 

The memorial was pigeon-holed by the 
Senate judiciary committee. But the Wiscon- 
sin Legislature, urged on by Governor Dodge, 
returned to the charge a year later, with reso- 
lutions declaring that Congress had violated 
the Ordinance of 1787, and that " a large and 
valuable tract of country is now held by the 
State of Illinois, contrary to the manifest right 
and consent of the people of the Territory." 
The people living in the disputed tract in 
Illinois were invited to express their opinion 
of the matter at the ballot-box. Public meet- 
ings were held at several affected Illinois 
towns ; and a convention representing the 
Illinois counties of Jo Daviess, Stephenson, 
Winnebago, Boone, McHenry, Ogle, Carroll, 
Whitesides, and Rock Island was held at Rock- 
ford (July 6, 1840), which declared that Wis- 
consin had a sound claim to the fourteen 
northern counties of Illinois. A popular elec- 
tion was held in Stephenson County, Febi-uary 
19, 1842, whereat of the five hundred and 
seventy votes cast, all but one were in favor 
of uniting with Wisconsin ; and in August, 
Boone County's vote was similarly demon- 
strative. 

Outside of the Legislature, the people of 
Wisconsin themselves exhibited small interest 



Division of the N'orthwest 107 

in the discussion. But at Madison, the terri- 
torial lawmakers continued their agitation, oc- 
casionally spicing their pugnacious memorials 
to Congress with thinly veiled threats of seces- 
sion, and such verbal boasts as, " The moral 
and physical force of Illinois, of the whole 
Union, cannot make us retrace our steps ! " 
In Congress, Illinois tactics prevented action 
on Wisconsin's claims; and gradually the Wis- 
consin Legislature tired of the one-sided con- 
test. In the first constitutional convention at 
Madison (1846), an attempt was made by some 
of the members to refer the boundary dispute to 
the Federal Supreme Court; but this proposi- 
tion failed — largely owing, it was claimed, to 
the dislike of some of the Wisconsin politicians 
to coming into competition with those in North- 
ern Illinois. The constitution-makers there- 
fore peaceably accepted the southern boundary 
which Congress had established ; and thus the 
question was laid at rest forever. 

By act of June 12, 1838, Congress contracted 
the limits of Wisconsin by creating from its 
trans-Mississippi tract ^ the Territory of Iowa. 

1 The language of the clause is as follows : " All that part 
of the present Territory of Wisconsin which lies west of the 
Mississippi River and west of the line drawn due north from 
the headwaters or sources of the Mississippi to the territorial 



io8 Essays in Western History 

This, however, was in accordance with the 

original design when the country beyond the 

Mississippi was attached to Michif^an 

Iowa dc- ^ *■ ^ 

tachedfrom Territory for purposes of temporary 
isconsm government; hence no objection to 
this arrangement was entertained by Wiscon- 
sin. The estabhshment of Iowa had reduced 
Wisconsin to her present hmits, except that she 
still held, as her western boundary, the Missis- 
sippi River to its source, and a line drawn due 
north therefrom to the international boundary. 
In this condition Wisconsin remained until 
the act of Congress approved August 6, 1846, 
Wisconsin" s ^^^^ling her people to form a State 
nortinvest constitutiou. Settlements had now 
oitm ary j^^^j^ established along the Upper 
Mississippi and in the St. Croix valley, far 

line " [international boundary]. By a memorial to Congress 
of the Wisconsin Territorial Legislature, approved January 
14, 1841 {Senate Docs., No. 171, 26th Cong., 2d sess., vol. iv.), 
it will be seen that under this act of June 12, 1S3S, there was 
some ambiguity as to the western boundary description ; the 
Wisconsin memorialists held that "the effect of the act con- 
fined the western boundary-line of Wiskonsin to the edge of 
the waters of the Mississippi river, and took away the juris- 
diction of Wiskonsin over any part or portion of the Missis- 
sippi, either concurrent or otherwise." Congress finally 
changed the phraseology, so that Wisconsin's western 
boundary became " the center of the main channel of that 
river." 



Division of the Northwest 109 

removed from, and having neither social nor 
commercial interests in common with, the bulk 
of settlement in Southern and Eastern Wiscon- 
sin. The northwestern settlers did not wish to 
be permanently connected with Wisconsin, but 



nl..orr«tWt)co8 






^ 




. y^ j£«PiOKINAW 




M 


^S ♦t^i*' 


C 


aSPtfTCO TCBBTTORV ^^^^^^ 


kCHidiao 


n. LAHDMil^^ 


Wdahy disputes 



did desire to cast their fortunes with a new 
Territory, to be called Minnesota, which was 
to be formed west of the Mississippi. They 
therefore brought strong influences to bear in 
Congress, and the enabling act in question gave 
to Wisconsin practically the same northwestern 
line that she has to-day — from the first rapids 



no Essays in Western History 

of the St. Louis River due south to the St. 
Croix River and thence to the Mississippi. 
This set off from Wisconsin and assigned to 
Minnesota an area of twenty-six thousand 
square miles, with the city of St. Paul included. 
There was a sharp contest over the matter, 
both in Congress and in the Wisconsin con- 
stitutional conventions of 1846 and 1847-48, 
with the result that the St. Croix people won, 
and Wisconsin, the fifth and last State of the 
Northwest Territory, became a member of the 
Union (act approved May 29, 1848), with her 
present limits : shorn on the south by Illinois, 
on the northeast by Michigan, and on the 
northwest by Minnesota. 

In 1837, Wisconsin Territory had a diplo- 
matic flurry with Missouri regarding the south- 
ern bounds of her trans-Mississippi tract, but 
as that country was merely attached to Wis- 
consin for temporary purposes and was after- 
wards absorbed by Iowa, the particulars of the 
dispute are not now pertinent. Neither is 
. . ^ the animated disturbance created by 

An inter- ^ ^ 

national the Wiscousiu Legislature in 1843-44 
tsptite over the terms of the international 
boundary treaty of 1842, of importance at this 
day ; for when Wisconsin became a State, the 
strip of country northwest of Lake Superior, 



Division of the Northwest 1 1 1 

which she claimed had been wrongfully en- 
croached upon by Great Britain, to the extent 
of ten thousand square miles, became the 
property of Minnesota, which fell heir to the 
international dispute.^ 

1 For detailed treatment, see Thwaites's " Boundaries of 
Wisconsin," Wis. Hist. Colls., xi. 



Ill 

THE BLACK HAWK WAR 



Ill 

THE BLACK HAWK WAR 

ALTHOUGH many of its incidents were 
paltry enough, few events in the early 
history of the West were as picturesque, as 
tragical, or as fraught with weighty conse- 
quence, as the Black Hawk War, 

Partisan . . . , . ^ /- ^ • i 

misrepre- which occurrcQ HI 1832. Certainly 
sentations ^one liavc been so persistently mis- 
represented for partisan purposes. Immedi- 
ately after the close of the war, numerous 
persons who had served with the army hast- 
ened to record their impressions in the fron- 
tier newspapers and in book form. These 
publications seem chiefly to have been de- 
signed as electioneering documents to glorify 
the war records of certain officials engaged in 
the service, and correspondingly to belittle the 
deeds of others. This gave rise, through a 
score or more of years, to acrimonious con- 
troversies, conducted through the media of 
pubHshed documentary collections, speeches, 



1 1 6 Essays in Western History 

newspapers, and unpublished letters. As the 
result of these prejudiced accounts, there have 
developed in the public mind vague and in 
large measure incorrect notions of the war, its 
causes, its incidents, and the relative merits of 
its chief participants. It is the attempt of this 
paper to dispel, it may be, some of these errors 
by presenting a sketch of the famous uprising 
of the Sauks, in the preparation of which parti- 
san sympathy has not entered, the truth alone 
being sought from original sources. 

On the third of November, 1804, the United 
States government concluded a treaty with the 
aUied Sauk and Fox Indians, by which, mainly 
Treaty of foi" the paltry annuity of a thousand 
1804 dollars, the confederacy ceded to the 

whites fifty million acres of land, comprising 
in general terms the eastern third of the pres- 
ent State of Missouri, and the territory lying 
between the Wisconsin River on the north, the 
Fox River of the Illinois on the east, the lUinois 
on the southeast, and the Mississippi on the 
west. There was an unfortunate clause in this 
compact (article seven), which became one of 
the chief causes of the Black Hawk War. 
Instead of obliging the Indians at once to 
vacate the ceded territory, it was stipulated 
that, " as long as the lands which are now 



The Black Hawk War 



117 



ceded to the United States remain their prop- 
erty " — that is to say, pubHc land — " the In- 




R-CThiraUe^Jhil. 



\.£lx^cJcJIcarh4>TraiJ, .____.-. 



dians belonging to the said tribes shall enjoy 
the privilege of living or hunting upon them."^ 

^ Treaties between the United States of America and the 
several Indian Tribes (Washington, 1837), p. 109. 



1 1 8 Essays in Western History 

Within the limits of the cession was the 
chief seat of Sauk power ^ — a village lying on 
the north side of Rock River, three miles above 
The old its mouth and the same distance south 
Sank village q{ Rock Island, in the Mississippi. 
It was picturesquely situated, contained the 
principal cemetery of the nation, and was 
populated by about five hundred families, 
being one of the largest Indian towns on 
the continent. The soil was alluvial in its 
composition, producing large crops of corn 
and pumpkins, and the aboriginal villagers 
took great pride in a rudely cultivated tract 
some three thousand acres in extent, lying 
north of the town and parallel with the 
Mississippi. 

From the beginning of the nineteenth cen- 
tury the principal character in this village was 
Makataimeshekiakiak, or Black Sparrow Hawk 
— commonly styled Black Hawk. Born at the 

1 The allied Sauks and Foxes had, from the middle of the 
eighteenth century, occupied the banks of the Mississippi, 
between the mouths of the Missouri and the Wisconsin. 
The confederation, in times of peace, was more nominal 
than real. There was much jealous bickering between the 
tribes. In general, the Foxes, who occupied the west bank, 
and were the smallest tribe numerically, were more concilia- 
tory toward the whites than were the Sauks, who dwelt 
chiefly along the east bank. 



The Black Hawk War 119 

Sauk village in i 'j^'j, he was neither an heredi- 
tary nor an elected chief, but by common 
^^^^^ consent became the leader of that 

Hawk community. Although not possessed 
of superior physical, moral, or intellectual en- 
dowments, the force of circumstances caused 
him to become a national celebrity in his day 
and a conspicuous figure in Western history for 
all time. He was a restless, ambitious savage, 
possessed of some of the qualities of successful 
leadership, but without the capacity to attain 
the highest honors in the Sauk and Fox con- 
federacy. He early became a malcontent, 
jealous of Keokuk, Wapello, Morgan, and the 
other recognized chiefs, continually sought 
excuses for openly differing with them on 
questions of policy, and in council arrayed 
his followers against them. He was much of 
a demagogue, and aroused the passions of 
his people by appeals to their prejudices and 
superstitions. 

It is probable that he was never, in the exer- 
cise of this policy, dishonest in his motives. 
Doubtless he was sincere in the opinions he 
championed. But he was easily influenced by 
the British military and commercial agents, — 
who were continually engaged, previous to the 
War of 1812-15, in cultivating a spirit of hos- 



1 20 Essays in Western History 

tility between the Northwestern tribes and the 
Americans, — and was led by them always to 
consider himself under the special protection 
of the ** British father " (general military agent) 
at Maiden.^ A too-confiding disposition was 
ever leading his judgment astray. He was 
readily duped by those who, white or red, 
were interested in deceiving him. The effect 
of his daily communication with the Ameri- 
cans was often rudely to shock his high sense 
of honor, while the uniform courtesy of the 
treatment accorded him upon his annual beg- 
ging visit to Maiden contrasted strangely with 
the attitude of the inhabitants on the lUinois 
border. 

Black Hawk was about five feet, four or five 
inches in height, and rather spare as to flesh ; 
his somewhat pinched features exaggerated the 

1 In his Autobiography (Boston, 1834), — probably au- 
thentic for the most part, but written in a stilted style which 
we doubtless owe to the editor, Patterson, — Black Hawk 
calls the president at Washington his "great father," and 
the agent at Maiden his " British father." Ford's History of 
Illinois (Chicago, 1854), p. 110, 7tote, questions the accuracy 
of the autobiography; he says that "Black Hawk knew 
little, if anything, about it"; that it "was written by a 
printer, and was never intended for anything but a catch- 
penny publication," and that it is a "gross perversion of 
facts." Later historians, not as strong Indian-haters as 
Ford, have taken a more favorable view of the book. 




BLACK HAWK 

From the painting by R . M. Sully, in possession of the TVisconsin Historical Society 



The Black Hawk War 121 

prominence of the cheek-bones of his race ; 
he had a full mouth, inclined to be somewhat 
open when at rest ; a pronounced Roman nose ; 
fine ** piercing " eyes, often beaming with a 
kindly and always with a thoughtful expres- 
sion ; practically no eyebrows ; a high, full 
forehead; a head well thrown back, with a 
pose of quiet dignity, and his hair plucked out, 
with the exception of the scalp-lock, in which, 
on ceremonial occasions, was fastened a bunch 
of eagle feathers.^ The conservative braves of 
the confederacy, who were friendly to the 
Americans, appear in the main to have re- 
garded the Hawk with kindly compassion. 
He was thought by them to be misguided, to 
be the credulous catspaw for others, but his 
sincerity was not often doubted. His own fol- 
lowers, who, from the closeness of their inter- 
course with the Canadian authorities were 
known as the " British Band," as a rule held 
him in the highest regard.^ 

1 An admirable original portrait of Black Hawk, by R. M. 
Sully, painted in 1883 while the subject was a prisoner at 
Fortress Monroe, hangs in the portrait gallery of the Wis- 
consin Historical Society ; a photographic engraving of this 
is herewith published. 

2 See Reynolds's My Own Times (2d. ed., Chicago, 1879), 
p. 204, for his estimate of Black Hawk. Ford, who himself 
served in the Black Hawk War, says, in his History of Illinois 



122 Essays in Western History 

At the outbreak of hostilities between Great 
Britain and the United States, in 1812, Black 
Hawk naturally sided with Tecumseh and the 
British. Accompanied by a band of two hun- 
^/^j dred Sauk braves, he served under the 

Tecumseh great Shawuce chief until the death 
of the latter at the battle of the Thames, Octo- 
ber 5, 1813.^ Black Hawk — who had, in 
company with the Potawatomi chiefs, Shau- 
bena and Billy Caldwell, been near to Tecum- 
seh when he fell — at once hurried home. 
He would, he tells us in his Autobiography, 
have remained quiet thereafter, until the close 
of the war, but for a fatal injury which had 
during his absence been inflicted by a party 
of white ruffians upon an aged friend whom he 
had left behind at the village. In consequence 
of this outrage, it was the thirteenth of May, 
18 16, — nearly eighteen months after the sign- 
ing of the treaty of Ghent, — before the British 
Band of the Sauks could be induced to 

(Chicago, 1854), p. 109: " Black Hawk was distinguished for 
courage, and for clemency to the vanquished. He was an 
Indian patriot, a kind husband and father, and was noted 
for his integrity in all his dealings with his tribe and with the 
Indian traders. He was firmly attached to the British, and 
cordially hated the Americans." 

1 See Cruikshank, on Black Hawk's record in the War of 
1812-15, Wis, Hist. Colls.., xii., pp. 141, 142. 



The Black Hawk War 123 

cease their retaliatory border forays along the 
Upper Mississippi and sign a treaty of peace 
with the United States. 

After burying the hatchet, Black Hawk set- 
tled into the customary routine of savage life — 
Bitterness hunting in winter, loafing about his 
against village in summer, improvidently ex- 

Americans ... , , i i t 

isting from hand to mouth though 
surrounded by abundance, and occasionally 
varying the monotony by visits to Maiden, 
from whence he would return laden with 
provisions, arms, ammunition, and trinkets ; 
his stock of vanity increased by wily flattery, 
and his bitterness against the Americans cor- 
respondingly intensified. It is not surprising 
that he should have hated the Americans. They 
brought him naught but evil. He was con- 
tinually being disturbed by them, and a cruel 
and causeless beating which he received from 
a party of white settlers in the winter of 
1822-23 was an insult treasured up against the 
American people as a whole. 

In the summer of 1823, squatters, covetous of 
the rich fields cultivated by the British Band, be- 
Encroach- §^" rudely to take possession of them. 
mentof The treaty of 1804 had guaranteed to 
sqna ers ^^ Indians the use of the ceded terri- 
tory so long as the lands remained the property 



124 Essays hi Western History 

of the United States and were not sold to indi- 
viduals. The frontier line of homestead settle- 
ment was still fifty or sixty miles to the east ; the 
country between had not yet been surveyed, and 
much of it not explored ; the squatters had no 
rights in this territory, and it was clearly the 
duty of the federal government to protect 
the Indians within it until sales were made. 
The Sauks would not have complained had the 
squatters settled in other portions of the tract, 
and not sought to steal the village which was 
their birthplace and contained the cemetery of 
their tribe.^ There were physical outrages of 
the most flagrant nature. Indian cornfields 
were unblushingly included within the areas 
appropriated and fenced by the intruders, 
squaws and children were whipped for ventur- 
ing beyond the bounds thus set, lodges were 
burned over the heads of the occupants. A 
reign of terror ensued, in which Black Hawk's 
frequent remonstrances to the white authori- 

1 " I had an interview with Keokuk [head chief of the 
confederacy], to see if this difficulty could not be settled 
with our Great Father, and told him to propose to give any 
other land that our Great Father might choose, even our lead 
mines, to be peaceably permitted to keep the small point of 
land on which our village was situated. . . . Keokuk prom- 
ises to make an exchange if possible." — Autobiography, 
pp. 8s, 86. 



The Black Hawk War 125 

ties were in vain. The situation year by year 
became more unbearable. When the Indians 
returned each spring from their winter's hunt 
they found their village more of a wreck than 
when they had left it in the preceding au- 
tumn. It is surprising that they acted so 
peacefully while the victims of such harsh 
treatment. 

Keokuk and the United States Indian agent 
at Fort Armstrong — which had been built on 
„, , Rock Island about 18 16 — continually 

Black "^ 

Hawk advised peaceful retreat across the 
stubborn Mississippi. But Black Hawk was 
stubborn as well as romantic, and his people 
stood by him when he appealed to their love 
of home and veneration for the graves of their 
kindred. He now set up the claim that the 
Sauk and Fox representatives in the council 
which negotiated the treaty of 1 804 did not 
consent that the land on which stood Black 
Hawk's village should be the property of the 
United States.^ This was the weak point in 

1 "After questioning Quashquame [one of the signers 
of the treaty of 1804] about the sale of the lands, he assured 
me that he never had consented to the sale of our village." 
— Autobiography,'^. 85. Yet Quashquame had signed the 
treaties of Portage des Sioux (September 13, 181 5) and 
St. Louis (September 3, 1822), wherein the treaty of 1804 
was explicitly reaffirmed. 



126 Essays in Western History 

his position. At each treaty to which he had 
" touched the quill " since that date he had, 
with the rest of his nation, solemnly reaffirmed 
the integrity of the compact of 1804. That he 
understood the nature of its provision, there 
is no reason to doubt. But this fact he now 
conveniently ignored.^ His present views 
were indorsed by the mischief-making British 
agent at Maiden, by the Winnebago Prophet, 
and by others of his advisers. All of these 
told him that were it true the government had 
not yet bought the site of his village, he should 
hold fast to it, and the United States would not 
venture to remove him by force.^ 

1 Black Hawk signed the treaties of St. Louis (May 13, 
1819), St. Louis (September 3, 1822), and Prairie du Chien 
(August 19, 1825), each of which reaffirmed the treaty of 
1804. 

2 He was easily satisfied with delphic advice : " I heard 
that there was a great chief on the Wabash, and sent a 
party to get his advice. They informed him that we had not 
sold our village. He assured them, then, that if we had not 
sold the land on which our village stood, our Great Father 
would not take it from us. I started early to Maiden to see 
the chief of my Ikitish Father, and told him my story. He 
gave the same reply that the chief on the Wabash had 
given. ... I next called on the great chief at Detroit, and 
made the same statement to him that I had to the chief of 
our British Father. He gave me the same reply. . . . This 
assured me that I was right, and determined me to hold out, 
as I had promised our people." — Autobiography, pp. 94, 95. 



The Black Hawk War 127 

White Cloud, the Prophet, was Black Hawk's 
evil genius. He was a shrewd, crafty Indian, 
y^f^if^ half Winnebago and half Sauk, pos- 
cioud, the sessing much influence over both 

Prophet . ° . . . - 

nations trom his assumption of sacred 
talents, and was at the head of a Winnebago vil- 
lage some thirty-five miles up the Rock River. 
He possessed some traits of character similar 
to those of Tecumseh's brother, but in a less 
degree. His hatred of the whites was invet- 
erate ; he appears to have been devoid of 
humane sentiments ; he had a reckless dis- 
position, and sowed the seeds of native revolt 
apparently to gratify his passion for war. 
White Cloud was about forty years of age 
when his sinister agitation bore fruit ; nearly 
six feet in height, stout and athletic ; he had a 
large, broad face ; a short, blunt nose ; full 
eyes, large mouth, thick lips, a full head of 
shaggy hair. His general appearance in- 
dicated deliberate, self-contented savagery. 
In council, the Prophet displayed much zeal 
and persuasive oratory. In the matter of 
dress he must at times have been picturesque. 
An eye-witness, who was in attendance on 
a Potawatomi council wherein the wizard was 
urging the cause of Black Hawk, describes 
him as dressed in a faultless white buckskin 



128 Essays in Western History 

suit, fringed at the seams ; wearing a towering 
head-dress of the same material, capped with 
a bunch of fine eagle feathers; each ankle 
girt with a wreath of small sleigh-bells which 
jingled at every step, while in his nose and 
ears were ponderous gold rings gently tinkling 
one against the other as he shook his ponder- 
ous head in the warmth of harangue.^ 

In the spring of 1830 Black Hawk and his 
band returned from an unsuccessful hunt to 
find their town almost completely shattered, 
many of the graves ploughed over, and the 
whites more abusive than ever. During the 
winter the squatters, who now had been seven 
years illegally upon the ground, formally pre- 
empted a few quarter-sections of lands at the 
mouth of the Rock, so selected as to cover the 
village site and the Sauk cornfields. This was 
clearly a trick to accord with the letter but to 
violate the spirit of the treaty of 1804. There 
was still a belt, fifty miles wide, of practically 
unoccupied territory to the east of the village, 

1 The name of the Prophet, in the Winnebago tongue, 
was Waubakeeshik, meaning "white eye," having reference 
to the fact that one of his pupils was without color. Pioneers 
recently living, who remembered the Prophet, differed in 
opinion as to whether he was totally blind in that organ. 
He died among the Winnebagoes in 1840 or 1841. 



The Black Hawk War 129 

and no necessity, for several years to come, for 
disturbing the Sauks in the natural progress of 
settlement. 

The indignant Black Hawk at once pro- 
ceeded to Maiden, to pour his sorrows into the 
ears of his " British father." Here he received 
additional assurance of the justice of his cause, 
and upon his return visited the Prophet, at 
whose village he met some of the Potawat- 
omis and Winnebagoes, who also gave him 
words of encouragement. 

Returning to his village in the spring of 183 1, 
after another gloomy and profitless winter's 
The whites hunt, he was fiercely warned away 
threatened ]^y. |.j^g vvhitcs. In a firm and digni- 
fied manner he notified the settlers that, if they 
did not themselves remove, he should use force. 
He informs us in his Autobiography that he 
did not mean bloodshed, but simply muscular 
eviction.^ His announcement was construed 

1 "The white people brought whiskey into our village, 
made our people drunk, and cheated them out of their homes, 
guns, and traps. This fraudulent system was carried to such 
an extent that I apprehended serious difficulties might take 
place unless a stop was put to it. Consequently I visited all 
the whites and begged them not to sell whiskey to my people. 
One of them continued the practice openly. I took a party 
of my young men, went to his home, and took his barrel 
and broke in the head and turned out the whiskey. I did 
9' 



130 Essays in Western History 

by the whites, however, as a threat against 
their lives ; and petitions and messages were 
showered in by them upon Governor John Rey- 
nolds, of Illinois, setting forth the situation in 
terms that would be amusing in their exagger- 
ation were it not that they proved the prelude 
to one of the darkest tragedies in the history of 
the Western border. The governor fell in with 
the popular spirit, and at once issued a flaming 
proclamation calling out a mounted volunteer 
force to " repel the invasion of the British 
The Hawk Band." These volunteers, sixteen 
coerced hundred strong, cooperated on the 
twenty-fifth of June with ten companies of 
regulars under General Edmund P. Gaines, 
the commander of the Western division of the 
army, in a demonstration before Black Hawk's 
village.^ 

this for fear some of the whites might be killed by my people 
when drunk." — Autobiography, p. 89. 

" I now determined to put a stop to it, by clearing our 
country of the intruders. I went to the principal men and 
told them that they must and should leave our country, and 
gave them until the middle of the next day to remove in. 
The worst left within the time appointed — but the one who 
remained represented that his family (which was large) 
would be in a starving condition if he went and left his crop, 
and promised to behave well if I would consent to let him 
remain until fall in order to secure his crop. He spoke 
reasonably, and I consented." — Ibid.^ p. loi. 

1 " It is astonishing, the war-spirit the Western people 



I 



The Black Hawk War 1 3 1 

During that night the Indians, in the face of 
this superior force, quietly withdrew to the 
west bank of the Mississippi, whither they had 
previously been ordered. On the thirtieth 
they signed with General Gaines and Governor 
Reynolds a treaty of capitulation and peace, 
solemnly agreeing never to return to the east 
side of the river without express permission of 
the United States government.^ The rest of 
the summer was spent by the evicted savages 
in a state of misery. It being now too late to 
raise another crop of corn and beans, they suf- 
fered much for the actual necessaries of life. 

Another difficulty soon arose. The previous 
year (1830), a party of Menomlnees and Sioux 
The Me- ^^^ murdered some member of the 
no7ninee British Band. A inw weeks after the 
removal, Black Hawk and a large 
war-party of the Sauks ascended the Missis- 
sippi, and, in retahatlon, massacred, scalped, 

possess. As soon as I decided to march against the Indians 
at Rock Island, the whole country, throughout the north- 
west of the state, resounded with the war clamor. Every- 
thing was in a bustle and uproar. It was then eighteen or 
twenty years since the war with Great Britain and these 
same Indians, and the old citizens inflamed the young men 
to appear in the tented field against the old enemy." — 
Reynolds, p. 209. 

1 See text of treaty. — Autobiography, pp. 218, 219. 



132 Essays hi Western History 

and fearfully mutilated all but one of a party 
of twenty-eight Menominees who were en- 
camped on an island nearly opposite Fort 
Crawford, at Prairie du Chien. On the com- 
plaint of the Menominees, General Joseph 
Street, the Indian agent at that post, de- 
manded that the Sauk murderers be delivered 
to him for trial, under existing treaty pro- 
visions. As none of the Menominee murderers 
had been given up, his foray was, according 
to the ethics of savage warfare, one of just 
reprisal. Black Hawk therefore declined to 
accede ; but although this was the custom 
of his race, he was therein clearly rebelling 
against the United States government through 
its Indian Department. 

Neapope, second in command of the British 
Band, had, prior to the eviction, gone upon 
Bad a visit to Maiden. He returned to 

advice ]^jg cliicf in the autumn, by way of 
the Prophet's town, with glowing reports of 
proffered aid from the British and the Win- 
nebagoes, Ottawas, Chippewas, and Pota- 
watomis, in the regaining of the village.-^ 

1 *' He (Neapope) informed me, privately, that the 
Prophet was anxious to see me, as he had much good 
news to tell me, and that I would hear good news in the 
spring from our British father. ' The Prophet requested me 



The Black Hawk War 133 

Neapope, possessed of considerable military 
genius, was an ardent disciple of the Prophet, 
as well as a reckless mischief-maker on his own 
account.^ 

The advice of White Cloud was, that Black 
Hawk should proceed to the Prophet's town 
the following spring and raise a crop of corn, 
assurances being given him that by autumn 
the several allies, armed and equipped by the 
British, would be ready to join the Sauk leader 
in a general movement against the whites in the 
valley of the Rock. 

to inform you of all the particulars. I would much rather, 
however, you should see him, and learn all from himself. 
But I will tell you, that he has received expresses from our 
British father, who says that he is going to send us guns, 
ammunition, provisions, and clothing, early in the spring. 
The vessels that bring them will come by way of Mil-wa-ke 
[Milwaukee]. The Prophet has likewise received wampum 
and tobacco from the different nations on the lakes— Otta- 
was, Chippewas, Potawatomis; and as for the Winneba- 
goes, he has them all at his command. We are going to be 
happy once more.' "—Autobiography, p. 109. 

1 Neapope (pronounced Nah-pope) means "soup." He 
was regarded as something of a curiosity among his fellows, 
because he used neither whiskey nor tobacco. Being a 
" medicine man," he was in demand at feasts and councils 
as an agency through which " talks " could be had direct 
with the Great Spirit. He had the reputation of being bet- 
ter versed in the Sauk traditions than any other member of 
the tribe. His history after the close of the Black Hawk 
War is unknown. 



1 34 Essays in Western History 

Relying upon these rose-colored represen- 
tations, Black Hawk spent the winter on the 
then deserted site of old Fort Mad- 

Drtttsh 

Band re- ison, on the west bank of the Mis- 
^^^^^"^ sissippi, near the mouth of the Des 

Moines, engaged in quietly recruiting his 
band. The urgent protests of Keokuk, who 
feared that the entire Sauk and Fox confederacy 
would become implicated in the war for which 
the Hawk was evidently preparing, but spurred 
the jealous and obstinate partisan to renewed 
endeavors.^ 

At this period the territory embraced in 
the Sauk and Fox cession of 1804 was an al- 
Eariy most unbrokcn wilderness of alternat- 

iraiis jj^g prairies, oak groves, rivers, and 

marshes. The United States government had 
not surveyed any portion of it, nor had it been 
much explored by white hunters or pioneers ; 
while the Indians themselves were acquainted 
with but narrow belts of country along their 
accustomed trails. In the lead regions about 
Galena and Mineral Point, there were a few 
trading posts and small mining settlements. 

1 " Keokuk, who has a smooth tongue and is a great 
speaker, was busy in persuading my baud that I was wrong, 
and thereby making many of them dissatisfied with me. I 
had one consolation, for all the women were on my side, on 
account of their zoxxi^tX^^y — Autobiography, p. 98. 



The Black Hawk War 1 35 

An Indian trail along the east bank of the 
Mississippi connected Galena and Fort Arm- 
strong, on Rock Island. A coach road known 
as " Kellogg's Trail," opened in 1827, connected 
Galena with Peoria and the settlements in 
southern and eastern Illinois. A daily mail 
coach travelled this, the only wagon road north 
of the Illinois River, and it was often crowded 
with people going to and from the mines, which 
were the chief source of wealth for the northern 
pioneers. Here and there along this road 
Hved a few people engaged in entertaining 
travellers and baiting stage horses — " Old 
Man " Kellogg at Kellogg's Grove ; one Win- 
ter, on Apple River; John Dixon at Dixon's 
Ferry, on Rock River; ''Dad Joe," at Dad 
Joe's Grove ; Henry Thomas, on West Bureau 
Creek ; Charles S. Boyd, at Boyd's Grove, and 
two or three others of less note. Indian 
trails crossed the country in many directions, 
between the villages of the several bands 
and their hunting and fishing grounds, and 
these were used as pubHc thoroughfares by 
whites and reds ahke.^ One of these con- 
nected Galena and Chicago, by the way of Big 

1 See Wis. Hist. Colls., xi., p. 230, on the evolution of 
highways from Indian trails ; also the several volumes in 
YixAh^xx:^ Historic Highways o/Ajnerica (Cleveland, 1902-03). 



1 36 Essays in Western History 

Foot's Potawatomi village, at the head of the 
body of water now known as Lake Geneva. 
There was another, but seldom used, between 
Dixon's and Chicago. The mining settlements 
were also connected by old and new trails, and 
two well-travelled ways led respectively to Fort 
Winnebago, at the portage of the Fox and 
Wisconsin rivers, and to Fort Howard, on 
the lower Fox. In Illinois, the most important 
aboriginal highway was the great Sauk trail, 
extending in almost an air line across the State 
from Black Hawk's village to the south shore 
of Lake Michigan, and thence to Maiden ; over 
this deep-beaten path the British Band made 
their frequent pilgrimages to Canada. 

Between Galena and the Illinois River, the 
largest settlement was on Bureau Creek, where 
Frontier somc thirty families were gathered. 
settlements Xhej-g wcre Small aggregations of 
cabins at Peru, La Salle, South Ottawa, New- 
ark, Holderman's Grove, and a little cluster 
of eight or ten on Indian Creek. The lead- 
mining colonies in the portion of Michigan 
Territory afterwards set aside as Wisconsin 
were chiefly clustered about Mineral Point 
and Dodgeville.^ At the mouth of Milwaukee 

1 See map of lead mines in 1829, IVis. Hist. Colls., xi., 
p. 400. 



The Black Hawk War 137 

River, on Lake Michigan, the fur-trader, Solo- 
mon Juneau, was still monarch of all he 
surveyed ; while at Chicago there was a popu- 
lation of but two or three hundred, housed in 
primitive abodes nestled under the shelter of 
Fort Dearborn. Scattered between these set- 
tlements were a few widely separated farms, 
managed in a crude, haphazard fashion ; squat- 
ters were more numerous than homesteaders, 
and at best little attention was paid to metes 
and bounds. 

The settlers were chiefly hardy backwoods- 
men who had graduated from the Pennsylvania, 
Character Ohio, Kcutucky, and Indiana clear- 
of settlers jngg^ g^d *' comc Wcst " to better 
their fortunes, or because neighbors were be- 
coming too numerous in the older regions. 
Generally they were poor, owning but little 
more than their cabins, their scanty clothing, 
a few rough tools, teams of " scrub " horses 
or yokes of cattle, and some barnyard stock. 
They were, for the most part, in the prime of 
life, enterprising, bold, daring, skilled marks- 
men, and accustomed to exposure, privations, 
and danger. There were no schools, and the 
only religious instruction received by these 
rude pioneers was that given by adventurous 
missionaries who penetrated the wilderness 



138 Essays in Western History 

with the self-sacrificing energies of the fathers 
of the church, compensating with zeal for what 
they lacked in culture. 

But upon the heels of these worthies had 
come thieves, counterfeiters, cut-throats, social 
outlaws from the East. Reckless and aggres- 
sive, they too often gave to the community a 
character of lawless adventure. Such men 
haunt the frontiers of civilization ; and abo- 
rigines, from being more frequently brought 
into collision with these than with the more 
conservative majority, are apt naturally to 
form an opinion of our race that is far from 
flattering.^ 

Conditions in Illinois were ripe for an Indian 
war. Many elements in the white population 
„ ^ , foresaw benefits to be derived from it. 

Ready for 

an Indian Occupation would be given to the 
^^^ small but noisy class of pioneer loaf- 

ers, and government money would circulate 
freely ; to the numerous and respectable body 
of Indian-haters — persons who had at some 
time suffered in person or property from the 
red savages, and had come to regard them as 

1 Nicolay and Hay's Abraham Lincoln — A History, i., 
chaps, ii. and iii., gives a graphic picture of pioneer life in 
Illinois in 1830; but their account of the Black Hawk War, 
chap, v., unfortunately contains numerous errors. 



The Black Hawk War 139 

little better than wild beasts— it offered a 
chance for reprisal ; to the political aspirant, a 
brilliant foray presented opportunities for the 
achievement of personal popularity, and in- 
deed the Black Hawk War was long the 
chief stock in trade of many a subsequent 
statesman ; while to persons fond of mere 
adventure, always a large element on the bor- 
der, the fighting of Indians presented superior 
attractions. 

On the sixth of April, 1832, Black Hawk 
and Neapope, with about five hundred warriors 
Illinois in- (chiefly Sauks), their squaws and chil- 
vaded dren, and all their possessions, crossed 

the Mississippi at the Yellow Banks, below the 
mouth of the Rock, and invaded the State of 
Illinois. During the winter, the results of the 
Hawk's negotiations with the Winnebagoes 
and Potawatomis had not been of an encour- 
aging nature. He now suspected that the repre- 
sentations of the Prophet and Neapope were 
exaggerated, and his advance from Fort Madi- 
son up the west bank of the Mississippi was 
accordingly made with some forebodings ; but 
the Prophet met him at the Yellow Banks, 
and gave him such positive reassurances of 
ultimate success, that the misguided Sauk 
confidently and leisurely continued his jour- 



140 Essays in Western History 

ney.^ He proceeded up the east bank of the 
Rock as far as the Prophet's town — some four 
hundred and fifty of his braves being well 
mounted, while the others, with the women, 
children, and equipage, occupied the canoes. 
The intention of the invaders was, as before 
stated, to raise a crop with the Rock River 
Winnebagoes at or immediately above the 
Prophet's town, and prepare for the war-path 
in the fall, when there would be a supply of 
provisions. Progress was so beset by difficul- 
ties, heavy rains having made the stream tur- 
bulent and the wide river bottoms swampy, 
that the band was twenty days in travelling the 
intervening forty miles. 

Immediately upon crossing the Mississippi, 
Black Hawk had despatched messengers to 
SJiaiibena's the Potawatomis, asking them to 
services meet him in council of war on Syca- 
more Creek (now Stillman's Run), opposite 
the present site of Byron. The Potawatomis 

1 "The Prophet then addressed my braves and warriors. 
He told them to follow us, and act like braves, and we had 
nothing to fear, but much to gain. That the American war 
chief might come, but would not, nor dare not, interfere with 
us so long as we acted jjeaceably. That we were not yet 
ready to act otherwise. We must wait until we ascend Rock 
River and receive our reinforcements, and we will then be 
able to withstand any army ! " — Autobiography, p, 113. 



The Black Hawk War 141 

were much divided in opinion as to the proper 
course to pursue. Shaubena, a chief of much 
abiHty, who since the War of 18 12-15 had 
formed a sincere respect and attachment for 
the whites, succeeded in inducing the ma- 
jority of the braves at least to remain neutral ; 
but the hot-heads, under Big Foot and a 
despicable half-breed British agent, Mike 
Girty, were fierce for taking the war-path. 
Shaubena, after quieting the passions of his 
followers, set out at once to make a rapid tour 
of the settlements in the Illinois and Rock 
valleys, carrying the first tidings of approaching 
war to the pioneers, even extending his mission 
as far east as Chicago.^ 

General Henry Atkinson ^ had arrived at 
Fort Armstrong early in the spring, in charge 
Troop of a company of regulars, for the pur- 
caiiedout i^q^^ q{ enforcing the demand of the 
Indian department for the Sauk murderers of 
the Menominees. He did not learn of the 
invasion until the thirteenth of April, seven 
days after the crossing, and at once notified 
Governor Reynolds that his own force was 
too small for the emergency and that a large 
detachment of militia was essential. The gov- 

1 See Matson's Memories of Shaubena (Chicago, i8So). 

2 The Indians called him " White Beaver." 



142 Essays in Western History 

ernor immediately issued another fiery proc- 
lamation (April 16), calling for a special levy 
of mounted volunteers to assemble at Beards- 
town, on the lower reaches of Illinois River, 
upon the twenty-second of the month. 

The news spread like wild-fire. Some of the 
settlers flew from the country in hot haste, 
stockade never to return ; but the majority of 
forts those who did not join the State troops 

hastened into the larger settlements or to other 
points convenient for assembly, where rude 
stockade forts were built on Kentucky models, 
the inhabitants forming themselves into little 
garrisons, with officers and some degree of 
mihtary discipline.^ 

1 The following named forts figured more or less conspicu- 
ously in the ensuing troubles : 

III Illinois — Galena, Apple River, Kellogg's Grove, Buf- 
falo Grove, Dixon's, South Ottawa, Wilburn (nearly opposite 
the present city of Peru), West Bureau, Hennepin, and Clark 
(at Peoria). 

Iji Michigan Tt'r/vVf^rj/ (now Southwestern Wisconsin) — 
Union (Dodge's smelting works, near Dodgeville), Defiance 
(Parkinson's farm, five miles southeast of Mineral Point), 
Hamilton (William S. Hamilton's smelting works, now 
Wiota), Jackson (at Mineral Point), Blue Mounds (one and 
a half miles south of East Blue Mound), Parish's (at Thomas 
J. Parish's smelting works, now Wingville), Cassville, Platte- 
ville, Gratiot's Grove, Diamond Grove, White Oak Springs, 
Old Shullsburg, and Elk Grove. 



The Black Hawk War 143 

Fort Armstrong was soon a busy scene of 
preparation. St. Louis was at the time the 
Atkinson ^^^^^ government supply dep6t on 
organizes the Upper Mississippi ; and Hmited 
tie army transportation facilities, and the bad 
weather incident to a backward spring, greatly 
hampered the work of collecting troops, stores, 
boats, and camp equipage. General Atkinson, 
energetic and possessed of much executive 
ability, overcame these difficulties as rapidly 
as possible. He had military skill, courage, 
perseverance, and knowledge of Indian char- 
acter, and during his preparations for the cam- 
paign took pains personally to assure himself of 
the peaceful attitude of those Sauks and Foxes 
not members of the British Band. He also sent 
two sets of messengers to Black Hawk, order- 
ing him to withdraw at once to the west bank 
of the river, on the peril of being driven there 
by force of arms. To both messages the Sauk 
leader, now blindly trusting in the Prophet, 
sent defiant answers.^ 

1 " Another express came from the White Beaver [Atkin- 
son], threatening to pursue us and drive us back, if we did 
not return peaceably. This message roused the spirit of my 
band, and all were determined to remain with me and contest 
the ground with the war chief, should he come and attempt 
to drive us. We therefore directed the express to say to the 
war chief, ' If he wished to fight \xs, he might come on ! ' We 



144 Essays in Western History 

Meanwhile the volunteers, easily recruited 
amid the general excitement, rendezvoused at 
Volunteers Beardstowu. They were organized 
mobihzed Jj^|.q f-Q^j. regiments, under the com- 
mands of Colonel John Thomas, Jacob Fry, 
Abraham B. Devvitt, and Samuel M. Thomp- 
son ; there were also a spy (or scout) battalion 
under Major James D. Henry, and two " odd 
battalions " under Majors Thomas James and 
Thomas Long.^ The entire force, some six- 
were determined never to be driven, and equally so, not to 
make the first attack, our object being to act only on the 
defensive." — Autobiography, p. 114. 

Wakefield's History of the War (Jacksonville, 111., 1834), 
pp. 10-12, gives an interesting report of a visit to Black 
Hawk's camp at the Prophet's town, made April 25-27, by 
Henry Gratiot, Indian agent for the Rock River band of 
Winnebagoes. Gratiot bore one of the messages from 
Atkinson, which Black Hawk declined to receive. See Wis. 
Hist, Colls., ii., p. 336 ; x., pp. 235, 493, for details of this 
mission, and sketch of Gratiot. 

1 See roster in Armstrong's The Sauks and the Black Hawk 
War (Springfield, 111., 1887), appendix. Abraham Lincoln, 
afterwards President of the United States, was captain of a 
company in the Fourth (Thompson's) regiment. Wakefield, 
the historian, served in Henry's spy battalion. Jefferson 
Davis, later president of the Confederacy, was a lieutenant 
of Co. B., First United States infantry, which was stationed 
at Fort Crawford (Prairie du Chien) during January and 
February, 1832, but Davis himself is on the rolls as "absent 
on detached service at the Dubuque mines by order of 
Colonel Morgan." He was absent from his company on 
furlough, from March 26 to August 18, 1S32; hence, it would 



The Black Hawk War 145 

teen hundred strong — all horsemen except 
three hundred who had by mistake been en- 
listed as infantry — was placed under the charge 
of Brigadier-General Samuel Whiteside, who 
had previously been in command of frontier 
rangers and enjoyed the reputation of being 
a good Indian fighter. Accompanied by Gov- 
ernor Reynolds, the brigade proceeded to Fort 
Armstrong, which was reached on the seventh 
of May, and General Atkinson swore the volun- 
teers into United States service. The governor, 
who remained with his troops, was recognized 
and paid as a major-general ; while Lieutenant 
Robert Anderson (later of Fort Sumter fame) 
was detailed from the regulars to be inspector- 
general of the Illinois militia. 

On the ninth, the start was made, Black 
Thear^ny Hawk's trail up the east bank of the 
sets out Rock being pursued by Whiteside 
and the mounted volunteers. Atkinson fol- 

appear from the records that he took no part in the Bhxck 
Hawk War further than to escort the chief to Jefferson 
Barracks. Nevertheless, an anonymous campaign biography 
of Davis, published at Jackson, Miss., 1851, in the interest of 
his candidacy for the governorship, and presumably inspired 
by the candidate himself, says that he " earned his full share 
of the glories, by partaking of the dangers and hardships of 
the campaign. Here he remained in the active discharge of 
his duties, and participating in most of the skirmishes and 
battles, until shortly after the battle of Bad Axe." 
10 



146 Essays m Western History 

lowed in boats with cannon, provisions, and 
the bulk of the baggage ; with him were the 
three hundred volunteer footmen and four 
hundred regular infantry, the latter gathered 
from Forts Crawford (Prairie du Chien) and 
Leavenworth, and under the command of 
Colonel Zachary Taylor, afterwards President 
of the United States.^ The rest of the baggage 
was taken by Whiteside's land force in wagons. 
The travelling was bad for both divisions. The 
heavy rains had swollen the stream ; the men 
frequently waded breast deep for hours to- 
gether, pushing the keel and Mackinac boats 
against the rapid current and lifting them over 
the rapids ; while upon the swampy trails the 
baggage wagons were often mired, and the 
horsemen obliged to do rough service in push- 
ing and hauling freight through the black muck 
and over tangled roots. For many days the 
troops had not a dry thread upon them ; the 
tents were found to be of poor quality, and but 
meagre protection from the driving storms on 
the Illinois prairies.^ 

1 Major William S. Harney, the hero of Cerro Gordo, also 
served with the regulars in this campaign. 

2 *' A great portion of the volunteers had been raised in 
the backwoods, and rafting and swimming streams were 
familiar to them." — Reynolds, p. 226. 



The Black Hawk War 147 

Whiteside was thus enabled to out-distance 
Atkinson. Arriving at the Prophet's town, 
he found it deserted and the trail up the river 
fresh, so he pushed on as rapidly as possible 
to Dixon's, where he arrived on the twelfth. 
Here he found two independent battalions, 
three hundred and forty-one men all told, 
under Majors Isaiah Stillman and David 
Bailey.^ They had been at the ferry for some 
days, with abundance of ammunition and 
supplies, in which latter Whiteside was now 
deficient. These commands were not of the 
regular levy, and objected to joining the main 
army except on detached service as rangers. 
Imbued with reckless enthusiasm, they were 
impatient at the slow advance of the expedi- 
tion, and anxious at once to do something 
brilliant, feeling confident that all that was 
necessary to end the war was for them to be 
given a chance to meet the enemy in open 
battle. 

Obtaining Whiteside's permission to go 
stiiiman's forward in the capacity of a scout- 
scouts ing party, the independents set out 

bravely on the morning of the thirteenth, under 

1 This made the total volunteer force 1,935 "^6"- The 
Stillman and Bailey battalions were afterwards organized as 
the Fifth Regiment, under Colonel James Johnson. 



148 Essays t7i Western History 

Stillman. Late in the afternoon of the four- 
teenth they pitched camp in a small clump of 
open timber, three miles southwest of the 
mouth of Sycamore Creek. It was a peculiarly 
strong position for defence. The troop com- 
pletely filled the grove, which was surrounded 
by a broad, undulating prairie. With an 
Indian enemy averse to fighting in the open, 
the troopers might readily have repulsed ten 
times their own number. 

Black Hawk had tarried a week at the 
Prophet's town, holding fruitless councils with 
Trihemen the wily and vacillating Winnebago es. 
in council Hq now for the first time learned 
positively that he had been deceived. But 
to keep his engagement at Sycamore Creek, 
he pushed on, faint at heart, though vaguely 
hoping better things of the Potawatomis. 
Going into camp with his principal men, in a 
large grove near the mouth of the creek, he 
met the chiefs of that tribe, and soon found 
that Shaubena's counsels had rendered it im- 
possible to gain over to his cause more than 
about a hundred of the hot-head element. 
Black Hawk asserted in after years that he had 
at this juncture fully resolved to return at once 
to the west of the Mississippi should he again 
be summoned to do so by General Atkinson, 



The Black Hawk War 149 

never more to disturb the peace of the white 
settlements. As a parting courtesy to his 
guests, however, he was on the evening of the 
fourteenth making arrangements to give them 
a dog feast, when the summons came in a 
manner Httle anticipated. 

The white-hating faction of the Potawato- 
mis was encamped on the Kishwaukee River 
some seven miles north of Black Hawk, and 
with them the majority of his own party. The 
Hawk says that not more than forty of his 
braves were with him upon the council ground. 
Towards sunset, in the midst of his prepara- 
tions, he was informed that a party of white 
horsemen were going into camp three miles 
down the Rock. It was Stillman's corps, but 
the Sauk — then unaware of the size of the force 
which had been placed in the field against him 
— thought it a small party headed by Atkinson, 
and sent three of his young men with a white 
flag, to parley with the new arrivals and con- 
vey his offer to meet the White Beaver in 
council. 1 

The rangers, who had regarded the expedi- 
tion as a big frolic, were engaged in preparing 
their camp, in irregular picnic fashion, when 

1 Autobiography y pp. 117, 118. 



150 Essays in Western History 

the truce-bearers appeared upon a prairie 
knoll, nearly a mile away. A mob of the 
troopers, in helter-skelter form, some with 
saddles on their horses and some without, 
rushed out upon the astonished envoys, and 
hurried them into camp amid a hubbub of 
yells and imprecations. Black Hawk had sent 
five other braves to follow the flagmen at a 
safe distance, and watch developments. This 
second party was sighted by about twenty of 
the horsemen, who had been scouring the 
plain for more Indians. They were said to 
have been, like others of Stillman's men at the 
time, much excited by the too free use of 
intoxicants. Hot chase was given to the spies, 
and two of them were killed. The other three 
galloped back to the council grove and re- 
ported to their chief that not only two of their 
own number, but the three flag-bearers as well, 
had been cruelly slain. This flagrant disregard 
of the rules of war caused the blood of the old 
Sauk to boil with righteous indignation. Tear- 
ing to shreds the flag of truce which, when the 
spies broke in upon him, he himself had been 
preparing to carry to the white camp, he 
fiercely harangued his thirty-five braves and 
bade them, at any risk, to avenge the blood 
of their tribesmen. 



The Black Hawk War 1 5 1 

The neutral Potawatomi visitors at once 
withdrew from the grove and hastily sped to 
stiiimaii's their villages, while Black Hawk and 
defeat ]^jg party of forty Sauks, ^ sallied forth 

on their ponies to meet the enemy. The entire 
white force, over three hundred strong, was 
soon seen rushing towards them in a confused 
mass. The Sauks withdrew behind a fringe 
of bushes, their leader hurriedly bidding them 
to stand firm. On catching a glimpse of the 
grim array awaiting them, the whites paused ; 
but before they had a chance to turn, the Hawk 
sounded the war-whoop, and the savages dashed 
forward and fired. The Sauk chief tells us that 
when he ordered it, he thought the charge 
suicidal, but, enraged at the treachery of the 
troopers, he and all with him were willing to 
die in securing reprisal. 

On the first fire of the Indians, the whites, 
without returning the volley, fled in great 
consternation, pursued by about twenty-five 
savages, until nightfall ended the chase. But 
nightfall did not end the rout. The volunteers, 
beset by the genius of fear, dashed through 

1 " Black Hawk in his book says he had only forty in all, 
and judging from all I can discover in the premises, I believe 
the number of warriors were between fifty and sixty." — 
Reynolds, p. 234. 



152 Essays in Western History 

their own impregnable camp, left everything 
behind them, and plunged madly through 
swamps and creeks till they reached Dixon's, 
twenty-five miles away, where they straggled 
in for the next twenty hours. Many of them 
did not stop there, but kept on at a keen gallop 
till they reached their own firesides, fifty or 
more miles farther, carrying the report that 
Black Hawk and two thousand bloodthirsty 
warriors were sweeping all Northern Illinois 
with the besom of destruction. The white 
casualties in this ill-starred foray amounted to 
eleven killed, while the Indians lost the two 
spies and but one of the flag-bearers, who had 
been treacherously shot in Stillman's camp — 
his companions owing their lives to the fleet- 
ness of their ponies. 

The flight of Stillman's corps was wholly 
inexcusable. It should, in any event, have 
stopped at the camp, which was easily defen- 
sible.-^ Stillman, no doubt, exerted himself to 

1 " I never was so surprised, in all the fighting I have 
seen — knowing, too, that the Americans, generally, shoot 
well — as I was to see this army of several hundreds, retreat- 
ing without showing fight, and passing immediately through 
this encampment. I did think that they intended to hault 
here, as the situation would have forbidden attack by my 
party, if their number had not exceeded half mine, as we 
would have been compelled to take the open prairie, whilst 



The Black Hawk War 1 5 3 

his utmost to rally his men, but they lacked 
discipline and that experience which gives 
soldiers confidence in their officers and each 
other. Their worst fault was their dishonor- 
able treatment of bearers of a flag of truce, a 
symbol which few savage tribes disregard. But 
for this act of treachery, the Black Hawk War 
might have been a bloodless demonstration. 
Unfortunately for our own good name, this 
violation of the rules of war was more than 
once repeated by the Americans during the 
contest which followed. 

From this easy and unexpected victory, 
Black Hawk formed a low opinion of the valor 
of the militiamen, and at the same time an 
The Hawk exaggerated estimate of the prowess 
at Kosh- of his own braves. Almost wholly 
onong destitute of provisions and ammu- 
nition, he was elated at the capture of Still- 
man's abundant stores. Recognizing that war 
had been forced upon him ^ and was hence- 

they could have picked trees to shield themselves from our 
fire." — Autobiography, p. 122. 

1 " I had resolved upon giving up the war, and sent a flag 
of peace to the American war chief, expecting as a matter of 
right, reason, and justice, that our flag would be respected (I 
have always seen it so in war among the whites), and a coun- 
cil convened, that we might explain our grievances, having 
been driven from our village the year before, without per- 



154 Assays in W ester 7i History 

forth inevitable, he despatched scouts to watch 
the white army while he hurriedly removed 
his women and children, by way of the Kish- 
waukee, to the swampy fastnesses of Lake 
Koshkonong, near the headwaters of Rock 
River, in Michigan Territory (now Wisconsin). 
He was guided thither by friendly Winneba- 
goes, who deemed the position impregnable. 
From here, recruited by parties of Winne- 
bagoes and Potawatomis, Black Hawk de- 
scended into Northern Illinois, prepared for 
active border warfare. 

The story of Stillman's defeat inaugurated a 
A reign reign of terror between the Illinois 
of terror ^^^ Wisconsin rivcrs, and much con- 
sternation throughout the entire West. The 
name of Black Hawk, whose forces and the 

mission to gather the corn and provisions, which our women 
had labored hard to cultivate, and ask permission to re- 
turn, — thereby giving up all idea of going to war against 
the whites. Yet, instead of this honorable course which I 
have always practised in war, I was forced into war, with 
about five hundred warriors, to contend against three or four 
thousand. 

" The supplies that Neapope and the Prophet told us 
about, and the reinforcements we were to have, were never 
more heard of, and it is but justice to our British father to 
say, were never promised — his chief having sent word in 
lieu of the lies that were brought to me, * for us to remain at 
peace, as we could accomplish nothing but our own ruin, by 
going to war.'" — Autobiography , pp. 123, 124. 



The Black Hawk War 155 

nature of whose expedition were grossly exag- 
gerated, became associated the country over 
with tales of savage cunning and cruelty. The 
bloodthirsty Sauk long served as a household 
bugaboo. Shaubena and his friends again 
rode post-haste through the settlements, sound- 
ing the alarm. Many of the frontiersmen, 
lulled into a sense of security by the long 
calm following the invasion at Yellow Banks, 
had returned to their fields. But there was 
now a hurrying back into the forts; they 
flew like chickens to cover, on the warn- 
ing of the Hawk's foray. The rustle in 
the underbrush of a prowling beast; the 
howl of a wolf on the prairie ; the fall of a 
forest bough; the report of a hunter's gun, 
were sufficient in this time of panic to blanch 
the cheeks of the bravest men, and cause 
families to fly in the agony of fear for scores 
of miles, leaving all their possessions behind 
them.^ 

1 Wakefield, pp. 56-60, relates some amusing and appar- 
ently truthful anecdotes of the scare. Here is one of them : 
" In the hurried rout that took place at this time, there was a 
family that lived near the [Iroquois] river [in northeastern 
Illinois] ; they had no horses, but a large family of small 
children ; the father and mother each took a child ; the rest 
were directed to follow on foot as fast as possible. The 
eldest daughter also carried one of the children that was not 
able to keep up. They fled to the river where they had to 



156 Essays in Western History 

On the day of the defeat, Whiteside, with a 
thousand four hundred men, proceeded to the 
The army field of battle and buried the dead. 
disbanded Qn the nineteenth, Atkinson and the 
entire army moved up the Rock, leaving Still- 
man's corps at Dixon to care for the wounded 
and guard the suppHes. But the army was no 
sooner out of sight than Stillman's cowards 
added infamy to their record, by deserting 
their post and going home. Atkinson hastily 
returned to Dixon with the regulars, leaving 
Whiteside to follow Black Hawk's trail up the 
Kishwaukee. 

Whiteside's men, however, now began to 
weary of soldiering. They declared that the 

cross. The father had to carry over all the children, at 
different times, as the stream was high, and so rapid the 
mother and daughter could not stem the current with such a 
burden. "When they all, as they thought, had got over, they 
started, when the cry of poor little Susan was heard on the 
opposite bank, asking if they were not going to take her with 
them. The frightened father again prepared to plunge into 
the strong current for his child, when the mother seeing it, 
cried out, ' Never mind Susan ; we have succeeded in getting 
ten over, which is more than we expected at first — and we 
can better spare Susan than you, my dear.' So poor Susan, 
who was only about four years old, was left to the mercy of 
the frightful savages. But poor little Susan came off unhurt; 
one of the neighbors, who was out hunting, came along and 
took charge of little Susan, the eleventh, who had been so 
miserably treated by her mother." 



The Black Hawk War 157 

Indians had gone into the unexplored and 
impenetrable swamps of the north, and could 
never be captured ; even were that possible, 
Illinois volunteers were not compelled to serve 
out of the State, in Michigan Territory; they 
also claimed to have enlisted for but one 
month. After two or three days' fruitless 
skirmishing, and before reaching the State 
line, the council of officers determined to 
abandon search. Turning about, they marched 
southward to Ottawa, where they were, on 
the twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth of May, 
at their own request, mustered out of the ser- 
vice by Governor Reynolds. En route from 
the Kishwaukee to Ottawa, the militiamen 
stopped at the Davis farm on Indian Creek, 
where a massacre of whites (p. 160) had oc- 
curred a few days before, and the mutilated 
corpsesof fifteen men, wom.en, and children were 
lying on the greensward, unsepulchred. This 
revolting spectacle, instead of nerving the 
troops to renewed action in defence of their 
homes, appears to have still further disheartened 
them.^ 

Thus did the first campaign of the war 
end, as it had begun, with an exhibition of 

1 See Reynolds's statement of the case, in My Own Times, 
PP- 238, 239. 



158 Essays in Western History 

rank cowardice on the part of the Illinois 
militia. 

Governor Reynolds was active, and at once 
arranged for a fresh levy of " at least two 
Afresh thousand " men to serve through the 
^^'-^ war, to rendezvous at Beardstown, 

June 10; while the federal government ordered 
a thousand regulars under General Winfield 
Scott to proceed from the seaboard to the seat 
of war, Scott being directed to conduct all 
future operations against the enemy. Mean- 
while, at Atkinson's earnest appeal, three 
hundred mounted volunteer rangers, under 
Henry Frye as colonel and James D. Henry 
as Heutenant-colonel, agreed to remain in the 
field to protect the northern line of Illinois 
settlements until the new levy could be 
mobilized.^ 

1 General Whiteside enlisted as a private in this battalion. 
Abraham Lincoln was also a member, being enlisted May 27 
as a " private horseman," in Captain Elijah Iles's company. 
He was mustered out at Ottawa, June 16, when the regular 
levy had taken the field. June 20 he re-enlisted in Captain 
Jacob M. Early's company, an independent body of rangers 
not brigaded, and served throughout the war. Besides these 
three hundred volunteer rangers, divided into six companies, 
General Atkinson had some three hundred regulars on Rock 
River, the entire force available to check the enemy, until 
the new levy could assemble. 



The Black Hawk War 159 

Black Hawk, upon descending Rock River 
from Lake Koshkonong, divided his people 
Irregular into war-partlcs, himself leading the 
largest, about two hundred strong. 
He was assisted by small scalping parties 
of Winnebagoes, who were always ready for 
guerilla butchery when the chance for detec- 
tion was slight, and by about a hundred Pota- 
watomis under Mike Girty. 

During the irregular hostilities which now 
broke out in northern lUinois and just across 
the Michigan (now Wisconsin) border, pending 
the resumption of the formal campaign, some 
two hundred whites and nearly as many Indians 
lost their lives, great suffering was induced 
among the settlers, and panic among the latter 
was widespread. Many of the incidents of this 
partisan strife are rich in historic and romantic 
interest and have been productive of elaborate 
discussions in the press and in documentary 
collections ; but in a paper of this scope only 
a few of the most striking events can be al- 
luded to.^ 

1 Nearly every volume of the Wisconsin Historical Collec- 
tiofts contains articles and documents bearing on this war, 
which it would be burdensome to cite here in detail ; many 
of them are invaluable, while some, in the light of later de- 
velopments, are worthless. 



i6o Essays in Western History 

On the twenty-second of May a party of 
thirty Potawatomis and three Sauks, under 
Notable Girty, Surprised and slaughtered 
skirmishes fifteen men, women, and children 
congregated at the Davis farm, on Indian 
Creek, twelve miles north of Ottawa, Illinois. 
Two daughters of William Hall — Sylvia, aged 
seventeen years, and Rachel, aged fifteen — 
were spared by their captors. Being taken to 
Black Hawk's stronghold above Lake Kosh- 
konong, they were there sold for two thousand 
dollars in horses and trinkets to White Crow, 
a Winnebago chief who had been sent out by 
Henry Gratiot, sub-agent for the Winnebagoes, 
to conduct the negotiation. The girls were 
safely delivered into Gratiot's hands at Blue 
Mounds, on the third of June. 

On the evening of the fourteenth of June, a 
party of eleven Sauks killed five white men at 
Spafford's farm, on the Peckatonica River, in 
what is now La Fayette County, Wisconsin. 
Colonel Henry Dodge, with twenty-nine men, 
followed, and the next day overtook the savages 
in a neighboring swamp. In a hot brush last- 
ing but a few minutes, the eleven Indians were 
killed and scalped, while of Dodge's party 
three were killed and one wounded. The de- 
tails of no event in the entire war have been 



The Black Hawk War i6i 

so thoroughly discussed and quarrelled over as 
those of this brief but bloody skirmish. _ 

On the twenty-fourth of June, Black Hawk s 
own party made a desperate attack on Apple 
River Fort, fourteen miles east of ^al^";*' 
Illinois. For upwards of an hour the little 
garrison sustained the heavy siege, displaying 
remarkable vigor, the women and girls mouldmg 
bullets, loading pieces, and in general proving 
themselves border heroines. The red men 
retired with small loss, after laying waste by 
fire the neighboring cabins and fields. iUe 
following day this same war party attacked, 
with singular ferocity. Major Dements spy 
battalion of Posey's brigade, a hundred and 
fifty strong, at Kellogg's Grove, sixteen ni.les 
to the east. General Posey came up w.th a 
detachment of volunteers to relieve the force, 
and continued the skirmish. The Indians were 
routed, losing about fifteen killed, while the 
whites lost but five.^ 

1 Notably in WU. Hist. Colls., ii., iv., v., vi vii., viii., x. 
^ K« Grove, afterwards Waddams's, and now 
Timms's, t situated in the soutlrwestern portion of Ke.rt 

Si*,;, Stephenson County, I"'"-; -'-."' Tt, tn 
south o£ Lena. The five men killed nr the ^^^ ">-h ° J - 
« ,832, had been buried at different points w.thm the 
g ;ve. During the summer of .886 their remains were coW 
fected by order of the county board of supervisors, and 



1 62 Essays in Western History 

At Plum River Fort, Burr Oak Grove, Sin- 
siniwa Mound, and Blue Mounds, skirmishes 
of less importance were fought. 

The people of the lead-mining settlements in 
what is now southwestern Wisconsin, deemed 
The lead- themselves pecuHarly liable to attack, 
niinedis- fearing that the troops centred on 
Rock River would drive the enemy 
upon them across the Illinois border. The 
news of the invasion at Yellow Banks was 
received by the miners early in May, and ac- 
tive preparations for defence and offence were 
at once undertaken. Colonel Henry Dodge, 
one of the pioneers of the lead region, and 
an energetic citizen largely interested in 
smelting, held a commission as chief of the 
Michigan militia west of Lake Michigan, and 
assumed direction of military operations north 
of the Illinois line. With a company of 
twenty-seven hastily equipped mounted rang- 
ers he made an expedition to Dixon, with a 
view both to reconnoitre the country and 

decently interred upon a commanding knoll at the edge of 
the copse. "With these were placed those of five or six other 
victims of the Black Hawk War, who had fallen in other 
portions of the county. Over these remains, a monument 
costing five hundred dollars was erected by the board, being 
formally dedicated September 30, 1886, under the auspices 
of W. R. Goddard post of the G. A. R. 



The Black Hawk War 163 

solicit aid from Governor Reynolds's force. 
He failed in this latter mission, however, and 
returned to the mines carrying the news of 
Stillman's defeat.^ After making prepara- 
tions for recruiting three additional compa- 
nies, Dodge proceeded with Indian Agent 
Gratiot and a troop of fifty volunteers to 
White Crow's Winnebago village at the head 
of Lake Mendota (Fourth Lake), on a point 
of land now known as Fox's Bluff, some four 
miles northwest of the present Madison. The 
Winnebagoes were always deemed a source 
of danger to the mining settlements, and it 
was desirable to keep them quiet during the 
present crisis. Colonel Dodge held council 
with them on the twenty-fifth of May, and 
received profuse assurances of their fidelity to 
the American cause ; but the partisan leader 
appears to have justly placed small reliance 
upon their sincerity.^ 

1 "General Dodge was camped in the vicinity [Dixon's], 
on the north side of Rock River, and I wrote him, at night 
[May 14-15], the facts of StiUman's disaster, and that his 
frontiers of Wisconsin would be in danger. He returned 
immediately to Wisconsin." — Reynolds, p. 235. 

2 Dodge's " talk " is given in Smith's History of Wisconsin 
(Madison, 1854), i., pp. 416, 417. See Wis. Hist. Colls., ii., 
p. 339, for White Crow's taunt flung at Dodge, that the whites 
were " a soft-shelled breed," and could not fight. For sketch 
of this chief — whose Indian name was Kaukishkaka (The 



164 Essays in Western History 

Returning from this council, Dodge set out 
from his headquarters at Fort Union on an 
Dod e's active campaign with two hundred 
j^ou^/i mounted rangers enhsted for the war. 
These men, gathered from the mines 
and fields, were a free-and-easy set of fellows, 
imbued with the spirit of adventure and an 
intense hatred of the Indian race. While dis- 
ciplined to the extent of obeying orders when- 
ever sent into the teeth of danger, these Rough 
Riders of seventy years ago swung through the 
country with small regard for the rules of the 
manual, and presented a striking contrast to 
the habits and appearance of the regulars. 

On the third of June they arrived at Blue 
Mounds, just in time to receive the Hall girls 
brought in by White Crow. The Crow and 
his companions being now offensive in their 
manner, Dodge had them thrown into the 
guard-house, and held for a time as hostages 
for the good behavior of the rest of the Lake 
Mendota band. On the eleventh, he was 
joined by a small party of Illinois rangers 
from Galena, under Captain J. W. Stephenson, 
the united force proceeding to Atkinson's re- 
Blind), he having lost an eye in a brawl — see 11/., x., pp. 495, 
496. W^ashburne's estimate of him, ii>ii/., p. 253, is unfavor- 
able ; others of his white contemporaries speak with enthu- 
siasm of his strength as a native orator, and his manly bearing. 



The Black Hawk War 165 

cruiting quarters, then at Ottawa, where Dodge 
conferred with the general as to the future 
conduct of the campaign. After remaining a 
few days, the rangers returned to the lead 
mines to complete the local defences. 

In less than three weeks from the date of 
Stillman's defeat, Atkinson and Reynolds had 
The new together recruited and organized a 
army ^ew mountcd militia force, and on 

the fifteenth of June the troops rendezvoused 
at Fort VVilburn (near Peru). There were 
three brigades, respectively headed by Gen- 
erals Alexander Posey, M. K. Alexander, and 
James D. Plenry. Each brigade contained 
a spy battalion. The aggregate strength of 
this volunteer army was three thousand two 
hundred, Vv'hich was in addition to Frye's 
rangers, half of whom continued their ser- 
vices to protect the settlements and stores 
west of the Rock River. With these, Dodge's 
rangers, and the regular infantry, the entire 
army now in the field numbered about four 
thousand effective men. 

A party of Posey's brigade was sent in ad- 
The ad- vaucc from Fort Wilburn to scour 
^Koshko- ^^^ country between Galena and the 
nong Rock, and disperse Black Hawk's war- 

party. It was this force that had the brush with 



1 66 Essays in Western History 

the Sauks at Kellogg's Grove on the twenty- 
fifth of June, already alluded to. Meanwhile, 
Alexander's and Henry's brigades had arrived 
overland at Dixon's. On arrival of news of 
the defeat of the Indians at Kellogg's, Alex- 
ander was despatched in haste to Plum River 
to intercept the fugitives should they attempt 
to cross the Mississippi at that point; while 
Atkinson, with Henry and the regulars, re- 
mained at Dixon's to await developments. 
On learning that Black Hawk's main camp was 
still near Lake Koshkonong, Atkinson at once 
marched up the east bank of the Rock, leaving 
Dixon's on the afternoon of June 27. The 
main army, now consisting of four hundred 
regulars and two thousand one hundred volun- 
teer troops, was joined the following day by 
a party of seventy-five friendly Fotawatomis, 
who seemed eager to join in the prospective 
scrimmage. 

On the thirtieth, the army crossed the Illinois- 
Wisconsin boundary about one mile east of the 
site of Beloit, near the Turtle village of the 
Winnebagoes, whose inhabitants had flown at 
the approach of the column.^ Sauk signs were 

1 In the Beloit Weekly Free Press for October 15, 1891, 
and January 21, 1892, Cornelius Buckley discusses in detail 
the place of crossing the boundary, and the site of Atkinson's 



The Black Hawk War 167 

fresh, for after his defeat at Kellogg's at the 
hands of Posey and Dement, Black Hawk 
had, instead of crossing the Mississippi, fled 
directly to his stronghold, reaching the Rock 
above the mouth of the Kishwaukee three or 
four days in advance of the white army. It 
was this warm trail that Atkinson's men, with 
the vehemence of bloodhounds, v/ere now fol- 
lowing. When possible, at the close of each 
day, the troops selected a camp in the timber, 
v^ere protected by breastworks, and at all 
times slept on their arms, for there was con- 
stant apprehension of a night attack; the 
rear guard of the savages, prowling about in 
the dark, were frequently fired on by the 
sentinels. 

The outlet of Lake Koshkonong was reached 
on the second of July. Hastily deserted Indian 
Fruitless camps werc found, with white scalps 
scouting hanging on the poles of the tepees. 
Scouts made a tour of the lake, but beyond a 
few stragglers nothing of importance was seen. 
A few Winnebagoes hanging upon the flanks 
of the column were captured, and after their 

camp, which latter he places "near the northeast corner of 
the southwest quarter of section 25, town i, and range 12, 
and 480 rods north of the State line . . . and directly north 
of the old fair grounds." 



1 68 Essays in Western History 

kind gave vague and contradictory testimony; 
one of them was shot and scalped for his 
impertinence. Several succeeding days were 
spent in fruitless scouting. July 4, Alex- 
ander arrived with his brigade, reporting that 
he had found no traces of red men on the 
Mississippi. On the sixth, Posey reported 
with Dodge's squadron. 

Dodge was at Fort Hamilton (Wiota) on 
the twenty-eighth of June, reorganizing his 
rangers, when Posey arrived from Kellogg's 
Grove, bringing from Atkinson orders to bring 
Dodge's command vv^ith him and join the main 
army on the Koshkonong. At Sugar River, 
Dodge was joined by Stephenson's Galena 
company and by a party of twenty friendly 
Menominees and eight or ten white and half- 
breed scouts under Colonel WiUiam S. Hamil- 
ton, a son of the famous Alexander, and then 
a prominent lead miner. This recruited his 
Rough Rider squadron so that it now numbered 
about three hundred. Proceeding by the way 
of the Four Lakes (neighborhood of Madison), 
White Crow and thirty Winnebagoes offered 
to conduct Posey and Dodge to Black Hawk's 
camp, and unite with them for that purpose. 
After advancing for several days through al- 
most impassable swamps, the corps were within 



The Black Hawk War 1 69 

short distance of the locality sought, when 
an express came from Atkinson ordering them 
to proceed without delay to his camp on Bark 
River, an eastern affluent of Lake Koshkonong, 
for he believed the main body of the enemy to 
be in that vicinity. This order much provoked 
Dodge, but it proved to be opportune. Black 
Black Hawk's camp occupied a position 

Hawk's advantageous for defence, at the sum- 
'^«"'/ mit of a steep declivity on the east 

bank of the Rock, where the river was difficult 
of passage, being rapid and clogged with 
boulders.^ White Crow's solicitude as a guide 
was undoubtedly caused by his desire to lead 
this small force, constituting the left wing of 
the army, into a trap where it might have been 
badly whipped if not annihilated. 

The army was thus formed; Posey's brigade 
and Dodge's rangers comprised the left wing, 
on the west side of the Rock; the regulars 
under Taylor, and Henry's volunteers, were 
the right wing, commanded by Atkinson in 
person, and marched on the east bank ; while 
Alexander's brigade, also on the west bank, 
was the centre. While marching across 
country, Dodge had conceived a poor opinion 
of Posey's men, and on the arrival of the left 

1 The site of the present village of Hustisford, Wisconsin. 



1 70 Essays in Western History 

wing at headquarters, solicited a change of 
companions. To secure harmony, Atkinson 
caused Posey and Alexander to exchange 
positions. 

While the treacherous White Crow had been 
endeavoring to entrap the left wing, other 
Winnebagoes of the neighborhood informed 
Atkinson that Black Hawk was encamped on 
an island in the Whitewater River, a few miles 
east of the American camp on the Bark. In 
consequence, the commander was from the 
seventh to the ninth of July running a wild- 
goose chase through the broad morasses and 
treacherous sink-holes of that region. It was 
because of this false information that Atkinson 
had hastily summoned the left wing to his aid, 
and thus in the nick of time unwittingly saved 
it from grave danger. Through lack of con- 
cert in their lying, the wily Winnebagoes 
failed of their purpose, for in the meantime 
the Hawk, startled from his cover by the 
manoeuvring in his neighborhood, fled west- 
ward to the Wisconsin River. 

Governor Reynolds, and several other promi- 
,,„ . nent Illinois men who were with the 

Illinois 

men dis- army, had become discouraged. They 

therefore promptly left for home by 

way of Galena, impressed with the opinion 



The Black Hawk War 1 7 1 

that the troops, now in wretched physical con- 
dition, almost destitute of food, and flound- 
ering aimlessly through the Wisconsin bogs, 
were pursuing an ignis-fatuus and the Black 
Hawk could never be captured.^ 

On the same day (July 10), Henry's and 
Alexander's brigades were despatched with 
At Fort Dodge's squadron to Fort Winnebago, 
Win7iebago ^t the portagc of the Fox and Wis- 
consin rivers, eighty miles to the northwest* 
for much-needed provisions, it being the 
nearest supply point. The Second Regiment 
of Posey's brigade, under Colonel Ewing, was 

1 " On the loth of July, in the midst of a considerable 
wilderness, the provisions were exhausted, and the army forced 
to abandon the pursuit of the enemy for a short time. 
Seeing the difficulties to reach the enemy, and knowing the 
extreme uncertainty of ever reaching Black Hawk by these 
slow movements, caused most of the army to believe we 
would never overtake the enemy. This condition of affairs 
forced on all reflecting men much mortification, and regret 
that this campaign also would do nothing. Under these cir- 
cumstances, a great many worthy and respectable individuals, 
who were not particularly operative in the service, returned 
to their home. My staff and myself left the army at the 
burnt village, on Rock River, above Lake Koshkonong, and 
returned by Galena to the frontiers and home. When I 
reached Galena, the Indian panic was still raging with the 
people there, and I was compelled to order out more troops 
to protect the citizens — although the militia of the whole 
country was in service." — Reynolds, pp. 251, 252. 



172 Essays in Wester 7i History 

sent down the Rock to Dixon's, with an officer 
accidentally wounded ; while, with the rest of 
his troops, Posey was ordered to Fort Ham- 
ilton to guard the mining country, which 
Dodge's absence had left exposed to the 
enemy. Atkinson himself fell back to Lake 
Koshkonong, and built a fort a few miles up 
Bark River, on the eastern limit of the present 
village of Fort Atkinson. 

On arrival at Fort Winnebago, the troopers 
found there a number of Winnebago Indians, 
all of them free with advice to the white chiefs. 
There was also at the fort a famous half-breed 
scout and trader named Pierre Paquette, who 
had long been a trusted servant of the Ameri- 
can Fur Company. He informed Henry and 
Dodge of the location of Black Hawk's strong- 
hold, confirming White Crow's story, but 
with added information as to its character. 
With twelve Winnebago companions, he was 
promptly engaged as pilot thither. While the 
division was at the fort, there was, from some 
unknown cause, a stampede of its horses, the 
animals plunging madly for thirty miles 
through the neighboring swamps, where up- 
wards of fifty were lost.^ 

1 Reynolds, pp. 254, 255 ; also Wis. Hist. Colls., x., p. 
3M- 



The Black Hawk War 1 73 

Henry and Dodge, resolute Indian fighters, 
decided to return to camp by way of the Hus- 
tisford rapids, and there engage Black Hawk if 
Mutinous possible. But Alexander's men re- 
conduct . fused to enter upon this perilous 
expedition, and insisted on obeying Atkin- 
son's orders to return to headquarters by 
the shortest available route. Alexander easily 
yielded to his troopers' demands, and this 
mutinous example would have corrupted 
Henry's brigade but for the firmness of that 
commander, who was a strict disciplinarian. 
Alexander returned direct to camp (July 15), 
with the men whose horses had been lost in 
the stampede, and twelve days' provisions for 
the main army. The same day, Henry and 
Dodge, the former in command, started out 
with twelve days' supplies for their own force, 
accompanied by Paquette and the Winnebago 
guides. The ranks had been depleted from 
many causes, so that roll-call on the sixteenth 
disclosed but six hundred effective men in 
Henry's brigade, and about a hundred and 
fifty in Dodge's squadron. 

On the eighteenth, the troopers reached 
Rock River and found the Winnebago village 
at which Black Hawk and his band had been 
quartered, but the enemy had fled. The Win- 



174 Assays in Western History 

nebagoes insisted that their late visitors were 
now at Cranberry Lake/ a half day's march 
up the River, and the white commanders re- 
solved to proceed thither the following day. 
They had arrived at the village at noon, and 
at two in the afternoon Adjutants Merriam of 
Henry's, and Woodbridge of Dodge's, bearing 
information of the supposed discovery, started 
south to Atkinson's camp, thirty-five miles 
down the river. Little Thunder, a Winnebago 
chief, accompanied them as guide. When 
nearly twenty miles out, and halfway between 
A hot the present sites of Watertown and 

trail Jefferson, the messengers suddenly 

struck a broad, fresh trail trending to the west. 
Little Thunder became greatly excited, and 
shouted and gestured vehemently, but the 
adjutants were unable to understand a word 
of the Winnebago tongue. When the chief 
suddenly turned his pony and dashed back to 
Henry's camp, they were obliged to hasten 
after him, as further progress through the 
tangled thickets and wide morasses without a 
pilot was inadvisable. Little Thunder had, it 
seemed, returned to inform his people that the 
trail of Black Hawk in his flight to the Missis- 

1 Afterwards Horicon Lake, in Dodge County — now 
drained. 



The Black Hawk War 175 

sippi had been discovered, and to warn them 
that further dissembling was useless.^ 

In the camp of the volunteers, this news was 
received with great joy. Their sinking spirits 
at once revived, and the following morning 
pursuit on the fresh scent was undertaken with 
an enthusiasm that henceforth had no occasion 
77^^ to lag. All possible encumbrances 

pursuit were left behind, so that progress 
should be unimpeded. The course lay slightly 
to the north of west, through the present towns 
of Lake Mills and Cottage Grove. The Chicago 
& Northwestern Railway between Jefferson 
Junction and Madison follows quite closely 
Black Hawk's trail from the Rock River to the 
Four Lakes. Deep swamps and sink-holes 
were met by the army, nearly the entire dis- 
tance. The men had frequently to dismount 
and wade in water and mud to their armpits, 
while the first night out a violent thunder- 
storm with phenomenal rainfall, followed by an 
unseasonable drop in the temperature, in- 
creased the natural difficulties of the march. 
But the fickle Winnebago stragglers, who in 
this time of want and peril were deserting the 
band of Sauk fugitives, and fawning upon their 
white pursuers, reported the Hawk but two 

1 Wis. Hist. Colls., ii., p. 407. 



1 76 Essays in Western History 

miles in advance, and the volunteers eagerly 
hurried on with empty stomachs and wet clothes. 
By sunset of the second day (July 20) they 
reached the lakes, going into camp for the 
night a quarter of a mile north of the north- 
east extremity of Lake Monona (Third Lake)/ 
That same night, Black Hawk was strongly 

1 Wakefield, who was with the army, gives this interesting 
picture (p. 66) of the now famous Four-lake country, as it 
appeared to him, July 20, 1832 : " Here it may not be unin- 
teresting to the reader to give a small outline of those lakes. 
From a description of the country, a person would very natu- 
rally suppose that those lakes were as little pleasing to the 
eye of the traveller as the country is. But not so. I think 
they are the most beautiful bodies of water I ever saw. The 
first one that we came to [Monona] was about ten miles in 
circumference, and the water as clear as chrystal. The earth 
sloped back in a gradual rise; the bottom of the lake ap- 
peared to be entirely covered with white pebbles, and no 
appearance of its being the least bit swampy. The second 
one that we came to [Mendota] appeared to be much larger. 
It must have been twenty miles in circumference. The 
ground rose very high all around ; — and the heaviest kind of 
timber grew close to the water's edge. If those lakes were 
anywhere else, except in the country they are, they would 
be considered among the wonders of the world. But the 
country they are situated in is not fit for any civilized nation 
of people to inhabit. It appears that the Almighty intended 
it for the children of the forest. The other two lakes 
[Kegonsa (First) and Waubesa (Second)] we did not get 
close enough for me to give a complete description of them ; 
but those who saw them, stated that they were very much 
like the others." 



The Black Hawk War 1 77 

ambushed, seven or eight miles beyond, near 
the present village of Pheasant Branch, at the 
western extremity of Lake Mendota. 

At daybreak of the twenty-first, the troops 
were awakened, and, after fording Catfish River 
where the Williamson Street bridge now crosses 
^t it, swept in regular line of battle across 

Madison ^^g isthmus between Monona and Men- 
dota lakes, Ewing's spies to the front. Where 
to-day is built the park-like city of Madison, 
the capital of Wisconsin, was then a heavy 
forest with frequent dense thickets of under- 
brush. The line of march was along the 
shore of Monona to about the present site of 
the Fauerbach brewery, thence almost due 
west to Mendota, the hilly shores of which 
were closely skirted through the present campus 
of the University of Wisconsin, across inter- 
vening swamps and hills to Pheasant Branch, 
and thence due northwest to Wisconsin River, 
which here sweeps in majestic curves between 
corrugated, grass-grown bluff's, some two or 
three hundred feet in height. The advance 
was so rapid that, during the day, forty 
horses succumbed between the Catfish and the 
Wisconsin. When his animal gave out, the 
trooper would trudge on afoot, throwing away 
his camp-kettle and other encumbrances, thus 



1 78 Essays in Western History 

following the example of the fugitives, whose 
trail was strewn with Indian mats, kettles, and 
miscellaneous equipage discarded in the hurry 
of flight. Some half-dozen Inoffensive Sauk 
stragglers, chiefly old men who had become 
exhausted by the famine now prevailing In 
the Hawk's camp,^ were at Intervals shot and 
scalped by the whites — two of them within 
the present limits of Madison. 

It was three o'clock in the afternoon before 
the enemy's rear guard of twenty braves under 
Neapopewas overtaken. Several running skir- 
mishes ensued. The timber was still thick, and 
it was impossible at first to know whether or 
not Neapope's party were the main body of 
the fugitives. The weakness of the tribesmen 
after a time became apparent, and thereafter 
when they made a feint the spies would charge 
and easily disperse them. 

At about half-past four o'clock, when within 

1 "During our encampment at Four Lakes, we were hard 
put, to obtain enough to eat to support nature. Stuck in a 
swampy, marshy country (which had been selected in conse- 
quence of the great difficulty required to gain access thereto), 
there was but little game of any sort to be found — and fish 
were equally scarce. . . . We were forced to dig roots and 
bark trees, to obtain something to satisfy our hunger and 
keep us alive. Several of our old people became so much 
reduced, as actually to die with hunger." — Autobiography, 
p. 130. 



The Black Hawk War 1 79 

a mile and a half of the river, and some twenty- 
five miles northwest of the site of Madison, 
Battle of Neapope's band, reinforced by a score 
Wisconsin of braves under Black Hawk, made 
^^^^^^ a bold stand to cover the flight of 
the main body of his people down the bluffs 
and across the broad island-studded stream. 
Every fourth man of the white column was de- 
tailed to hold the horses, while the rest of the 
troopers advanced on foot. The savages, yell- 
ing like madmen, made a heavy charge, and 
endeavored to flank the whites, but Colonel 
Frye on the right and Colonel Jones on the 
left repulsed them with loss. The Sauks now 
dropped into the grass, here nearly six feet 
high ; but after a half-hour of hot firing on 
both sides, with a few casualties evenly distrib- 
uted, Dodge, Ev/ing, and Jones charged the 
enemy with the bayonet, driving them up a 
rising piece of ground at the top of which 
a second rank was found, skilfull}'' covering 
the retreat. After further firing, the Indians 
swiftly descended through the rank herbage of 
the bluffs to join their main body, now engaged 
in crossing the river. It had been raining 
softly during the greater part of the battle, and 
difficulty was experienced in keeping the mus- 
kets dry; nevertheless a sharp fire was kept 



i8o Essays in Western History 

up between the lines until dusk. At the base 
of the bluffs there was swampy ground some 
sixty yards in width, thick strewn with willows, 
and then a heavy fringe of timber on a strip of 
firm ground along the river-bank. As the 
Indians could reach this vantage-point before 
being overtaken, it was deemed best to aban- 
don the pursuit for the night. 

Black Hawk, skilful in military operations, 
personally conducted the battle, on the part of 
the Sauks, and from a neighboring knoll, where 
he was seated on a white pony, directed and 
encouraged his men with clear, loud voice.^ 

After dusk had set in, a considerable party 
of the fugitives, composed mainly of women, 
children, and old men, were placed on a large 
raft and in canoes begged from the Winneba- 
goes, and sent down the river in the hope that 
the soldiers at Fort Crawford, guarding the 
mouth of the Wisconsin, would allow these 
non-combatants to cross the Mississippi in 
peace. But too much reliance was placed on 
the humanity of the Americans. Lieutenant 

1 Black Hawk says that he lost six warriors in this en- 
gagement at Wisconsin Heights (opposite Prairie du Sac). 
Mrs. Kinzie's Wau Bim (New York, 1856) says, it was re- 
ported at Fort Winnebago that fifty Sauks were killed. 
Wakefield puts the number at sixty-eight killed outright, 
and twenty-five mortally wounded. 



The Black Hawk War 1 8 1 

Joseph Ritner, with a small detachment of 
regulars, was sent out by Indian Agent Joseph 
M. Street^ to intercept these forlorn, half- 
starved wretches, a messenger from the field 
of battle having apprised the agent of their 
approach. A short distance above Fort Craw- 
ford, Ritner fired on them, killing fifteen men 
and capturing thirty-two women and children, 
and four men. Nearly as many more were 
drowned during the onslaught; while of the 
rest, who escaped to the wooded shores, all 
but a half-score perished with hunger or were 
massacred by a belated party of three hundred 
Menominee allies from the Green Bay district, 
under Colonel Stambaugh and a small staff of 
white officers.^ 

During the night after the battle of Wiscon- 
sin Heights — as that affair has since been 
Anwisiw known in history — there were fre- 
ccssfui quent alarms from prowling Indians, 
and the men, fearing an attack, were 
nearly always under arms. About an hour 
and a half before dawn of the twenty-second, 
a loud, shrill voice, speaking in an unknown 
tongue, was heard from the direction of the 

1 Stationed at Prairie du Chien, 

2 See " Boyd Papers," Wis. Hist. Colls., xii., for the docu- 
mentary history of Stambaugh's expedition. 



1 82 Essays in Western History 

eminence known to have been occupied by- 
Black Hawk during the previous afternoon. 
There was at once a panic in the camp, for it 
was thought that the savage leader was giving 
orders for an attack, and Henry thought it de- 
sirable to bolster the courage of his men by 
making them a patriotic speech, during which 
the interrupted harangue of the savage ceased. 
It was afterwards learned that the orator 
was Neapope, who had spoken in the Win- 
nebago tongue, under the presumption that 
Paquette and the Winnebago pilots were still 
in camp. But during the night they had left 
for Fort Winnebago, and it chanced that no 
one among the troops had understood a word 
of the speech — an offer of conciliation, ad- 
dressed to the victors. Neapope had said that 
with the Sauks were their squaws, children, and 
old people ; they had unwillingly been forced 
into war, they were literally starving, and if 
allowed to cross the Mississippi in peace would 
nevermore do harm. But the plea fell on un- 
witting ears, and thus failed the second earnest 
attempt of the British Band to close the war. 
As for Neapope, finding that his mission had 
failed, — apparently through the hardness of 
the American heart, — he fled to the Winne- 
bagoes, leaving his half-dozen companions to 



The Black Hawk War 183 

return with the discouraging news to Black 
Hawk, now secretly encamped with the rem- 
nant of his band in a neighboring ravine north 
of the Wisconsin.^ 

The twenty-second of July was spent by the 
white army on the battlefield, making prepara- 
tions to march to the rude local fort at Blue 
Mounds for supplies. It was now known that 
during the night the enemy had escaped across 
or down the river; and the troops were in- 
sufficiently provisioned for a long chase 
through the unknown country beyond Wis- 
consin River. 

On the twenty-third, Henry marched with 
his corps to Blue Mounds, and late that even- 
Preparing ing was joined by Atkinson and 
for the " Alexander, who, on being informed 
^"''"'' by express of the discovery of the 
trail and the rapid chase, had left the fort on 
the Koshkonong and hastened on to the 
Mounds to join the victors. Atkinson assumed 
command, distributed rations to the men, and 
ordered that the pursuit be resumed. 

On the twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth, 
the Wisconsin was crossed on rafts at Helena, 

1 Autobiography, pp. I3i-i33- Black Hawk does not men- 
tion this incident of Neapope's night harangue. Reynolds 
reports it, p. 262; so also Ford, p. 146, and Wakefield, p. 86. 



184 Essays {71 Western History 

then a deserted log village, whose cabins had 
furnished material for the floats.^ Posey here 
joined the army with his brigade, and thus all 
of the generals were now reunited. The march 
was commenced at noon of the twenty-eighth, 
the four hundred and fifty regulars, now under 
General Brady, — with Colonel Taylor still of 
the party, — in advance ; while Dodge, Posey, 
and Alexander followed in the order named, 
Henry bringing up the rear in charge of the 
baggage. It appears that much jealousy had 
been displayed by Atkinson, at the fact that 
the laurels of the campaign, such as they were, 
had thus far been won by the volunteers. 
Henry, as chief of the victors at Wisconsin 
Heights, was especially unpopular at head- 
quarters. But the brigadier and his men 
trudged peacefully on behind, judiciously 
pocketing what they felt to be an affront.^ 

1 See Wis. Hist. Colls., xi., p. 403 ; and Libby's " Chronicle 
of the Helena Shot Tower," ibid., xiii., pp 335-374. The 
town, built for the accommodation of the employees of a 
shot-making company, had been deserted at the outbreak of 
the war, most of the men being now members of Dodge's 
rangers. 

2 Ford, pp. 146-155, publishes some interesting corre- 
spondence, showing that Dodge was disposed to claim more 
than his share of the honors of this and some other engage- 
ments in the war, and to ignore Henry as his superior officer. 
Those men under Dodge, who have written about the cam- 



The Black Hawk War 185 

After marching four or five miles northeast- 
ward, the trail of the fugitives was discovered 
A forbid- trending to the north of west, towards 
ding path the Mississippi. The country between 
the Wisconsin and the great river is rugged 
and forbidding in character; it was then un- 
known to whites, and almost equally unfamiliar 
to the Winnebago guides. The impediments 
were many and serious, swamps and turbulent 
rivers being freely interspersed between steep, 
thickly wooded hills. However, the fact that 
they were noticeably gaining on the enemy 
constantly spurred the troopers to great en- 
deavors. The pathway was strewn with the 
bodies of dead Sauks, who had died of wounds 
and starvation, and there were frequent evi- 
dences that to sustain life the fleeing wretches 
were eating the bark of trees and the sparse 
flesh of their fagged-out ponies.-^ 

paign, extol the superior merits of their chief; but in Illinois 
pioneer reminiscences, Henry is invariably the hero of the 
occasion. 

1 " I started over a rugged country, to go to the Mis- 
sissippi, intending to cross it, and return to my nation. 
Many of our people were compelled to go on foot, for want 
of horses, which, in consequence of their having had nothing 
to eat for a long time,'caused our march to be very slow. At 
length we reached the Mississippi, having lost some'of our 
old men and little children, who perished on the way with 
hunger." — Autobiography, p. 133. 



1 86 Essays in Western History 

On Wednesday, the first of August, Black 
Hawk and his now sadly depleted and almost 
The famished band reached the Missis- 

Mississippi, gippj at a point two miles below the 
mouth of the Bad Axe, a small east- 
ern tributary, and about forty north of the 
Wisconsin. In these upper reaches the broad 
river is diverted into several channels by long, 
narrow islands heavily wooded by swamp oaks 
and willows, and thick strewn with giant wind- 
rows of drift, lodged by spring freshets. Here 
Black Hawk undertook to cross ; there were, 
however, but two or three canoes to be had, 
and the work was slow. One large raft, laden 
with women and children, was despatched to 
thread its way under cover of the islands along 
the east side of the river, towards Prairie du 
Chien; but on the way it capsized, probably 
impelled upon one of the sprawling snags 
which ofttimes rendered early river navigation 
a perilous undertaking, and nearly all of its 
occupants were drowned. 

In the middle of the afternoon, the steamer 
" Warrior," of Prairie du Chien, used to trans- 
port army supplies, appeared on the scene 
with John Throckmorton as captain.^ On 

1 See Fonda's report of the " Warrior's " part in the battle, 
Wis. Hist. Colls., v., pp. 261-264. 



The Black Hawk War 187 

board were Lieutenants Gaines P. Kingsbury 
and Reuben Holmes, with fifteen regulars and 
six volunteers. The party had been up the 
river to notify the friendly Sioux chief Wa- 
basha, — whose village was on the site of 
Winona, Minnesota, — that the Sauks were 
headed in that direction. As the steamer 
The Battle neared the shore, Black Hawk ap- 
of the Bad peared on the bank with a white flag, 
"^"^ and in the Winnebago tongue called 

to the captain to send a boat ashore, as the 
fugitives wished to give themselves up. A 
Winnebago stationed in the bow interpreted 
the request, but the captain affected to believe 
that an ambush was intended, and ordered the 
Hawk to come aboard in his own craft. This 
the Sauk could not do, for the only canoes 
at his command were engaged in transporting 
his women and children across the river, and 
were not now within hail. His reply to this 
effect was quickly met by three successive 
rounds of canister-shot, which ploughed with 
deadly effect through the Httle group of Indians 
on shore. There followed a fierce fire of 
musketry on both sides, in which twenty- 
three Indians were killed, while the whites 
suffered the loss of but one wounded. The 
''Warrior," now being short of fuel, towards 



i88 Essays in Western History 

night returned to Prairie du Chien to " wood 
up," the soldiers much elated at their share in 
the campaign. 

During the night a few more savages crossed 
the river into Minnesota; but Black Hawk, 
foreseeing that disaster was about to befall 
his people, gathered a party of ten warriors, 
among whom was the Prophet, and these, with 
about thirty-five squaws and children, headed 
east for a rocky hiding-place at the Dalles of the 
Wisconsin, whither some Winnebagoes offered 
to guide them.^ The next day the heart of 
the old man smote him for having left his 
people to their fate, and he returned in time 
to witness from a neighboring bluff the con- 
clusion of the Battle of the Bad Axe, that 
struck the death-blow to the British Band. 
With a howl of rage, he turned back into the 
forest and fled. 

The aged warrior had left excellent instruc- 
tions to his braves, in the event of the arrival 
of the white army by land. Twenty picked 
Sauks were ordered to stand rear guard on one 
of the high, ravine-washed bluffs which here 
line the east bank of the Mississippi ; and 
when engaged, to fall back three miles up the 
river, thus to deceive the whites as to the 

1 Wakefield, pp. 97, 98, 



The Black Hawk War 189 

location of the main band, and gain time for 
the flight of the latter across the stream, which 
was progressing slowly with but two canoes 
now left for the purpose. 

Atkinson's men were on the move by two 
o'clock in the morning of the second. When 
within four or five miles of the Sauk position, 
the decoys were encountered. The density 
of the bottom timber obstructing the view, and 
the twenty braves being widely separated, it 
was supposed that the main force of the enemy 
had been overtaken. The army accordingly 
spread itself for the attack, Alexander and 
Posey forming the right wing, Henry the left, 
and Dodge and the regulars the centre. When, 
as directed by their chief, the braves retreated 
up the river, the white centre and right wing 
followed quickly, leaving the left wing — with 
the exception of one of its regiments detailed 
to cover the rear — without orders. This was 
clearly an additional affront to Henry, Atkin- 
son's design being doubtless to crowd him out 
of what all anticipated would be the closing 
engagement of the campaign, and what little 
glory might corne of it. 

But the fates did not desert the brigadier. 
Some of Ewing's spies, attached to his com- 
mand, accidentally discovered that the main 



190 Essays in Western History 

trail of the fugitive band was lower down the 
river-bank than whither the decoys were lead- 
ing the army. Henry, with his entire force, 
thereupon descended a bluff in the immediate 
neighborhood, and after a dash on foot through 
the open wooded plateau between the base of 
the bluff and the shore, found himself in the 
midst of the main body of three hundred war- 
riors, which was about the number of the at- 
tacking party. A desperate conflict ensued, 
the bucks being driven from tree to tree at the 
point of the bayonet, while women and chil- 
dren plunged madly into the river, many of 
them being immediately drowned. The air 
quivered with savage yells and whoops, with 
the hoarse cry of the troopers as they cheered 
one another on, and with the shrill notes of the 
bugle directing the details of the attack. 

A full half-hour after Henry had made his 
descent upon the Sauk centre, Atkinson, hear- 
ing the din of battle in his rear, came hasten- 
ing to the scene with the centre and right wing, 
driving in the decoys and stragglers before 
him, thus completing the corral. The carnage 
now proceeded more fiercely than ever. The 
red men fought with intense desperation, and, 
though weak from hunger, died like braves. 
A few escaped through a broad slough to a 



The Black Hawk War 1 9 1 

willow island, which the steamer "Warrior," 
now reappearing on the river, raked from end 
to end with canister. This was followed by 
a wild charge through mud and water by a 
detachment of regulars, with a few of Henry's 
and Dodge's volunteers, who ended the affair 
by sweeping the island with a bayonet charge. 
Some of the fugitives succeeded in swimming to 
the west bank of the Mississippi, but many were 
drowned on the way, or coolly picked off by 
sharpshooters, who exercised no more mercy 
towards squaws and children than towards 
braves — treating them all as though rats 
rather than human beings.^ 

The Battle of the Bad Axe — massacre 
would be a better term — lasted for three long, 
horrible hours. Few if any contests between 
red men and white men have been less credit- 
able to our race. In the course of the carnage, 

1 " Although the warriors fought with the courage and 
valor of desperation, yet the conflict resembled more a car- 
nage than a regular battle." — Reynolds, p. 265. 

" Our braves, but few in number, finding that the enemy 
paid no regard to age or sex, and seeing that they were mur- 
dering helpless women and little children, determined to 
fight until they were killed." — Aiitobiography, p. 135. 

Wakefield says, p. 85, " It was a horrid sight to witness 
little children, wounded and suffering the most excruciating 
pain. ... It was enough to make the heart of the most 
hardened being on earth to ache." 



192 Essays in Western History 

a hundred and fifty Indians were slaughtered 
outright, while as many more of both sexes 
and all ages and conditions were drowned — 
some fifty only being taken prisoners, and 
they mostly women and children. About 
three hundred of the band successfully crossed 
the river, before and during the struggle. The 
whites lost but seventeen killed and twelve 
wounded.^ 

Those few of the Sauks who safely regained 
the west bank were soon set upon by a party 
^ ^^^.^_ of a hundred Sioux, under Wabasha, 
honorable sent out for that purpose by Atkin- 
chapter ^^^^ . ^^^ ^ j^^j^ ^^ these hclplcss, 

nearly starved non-combatants were cruelly 
slaughtered, while many others died of exhaus- 
tion and wounds before they reached those of 
their friends who had been wise enough to 
abide by Keokuk's peaceful admonitions and 
stay at home. Thus, out of the band of nearly 
a thousand persons who crossed the Missis- 
sippi at the Yellow Banks in April, not more, 
all told, than a hundred and fifty, lived to tell 
the tragic story of the Black Hawk War — a 

1 I follow Reynolds, p. 265. He says apologetically, 
years after the event, " Some squaws were killed by mistake 
in the battle. They were mixed with the warriors, and some 
of them dressed like the males." 



The Black Hawk War 193 

dishonorable chapter in the history of the 
border. 

The rest can soon be told. On the seventh 
of August, when the victors had returned to 
Prairie du Chien, General Winfield 
Scott arrived and assumed command, 
discharging the volunteers the following day. 
Cholera among his troops had detained him 
first at Detroit, then at Chicago, and lastly at 
Rock Island, nearly a fourth of his detachment 
of a thousand regulars having died of the pes- 
tilence. Independent of this, the American loss 
in the war, including volunteers and settlers 
killed in the irregular skirmishes and in massa- 
cres, was not over two hundred and fifty. The 
financial cost to the nation and to the State of 
Illinois aggregated nearly two millions of dollars. 
On the twenty-seventh of August, Chsetar 
and One-eyed Decorah, two Winnebago braves 
Black ^^'^° were desirous of displaying their 

Hawk a ncwly-inspircd loyalty to the Amer- 
trisoner j^^^^^ delivered Black Hawk and the 
Prophet into the hands of Agent Street, at 
Prairie du Chien. They had found the con- 
spirators at the Dalles' of Wisconsin River, 
above the site of Kilbourn City.^ 

1 See McBride's " Capture of Black Hawk," in Wis. Hist. 
Colls., v., pp. 293, 294; id., viii., p. 316, note; Wakefield, pp. 
13 



194 Essays in Western History 

On the twenty-first of September, a treaty 
of peace was signed at Fort Armstrong ; under 
its terms, Black Hawk, the Prophet, and Nea- 
pope — who had been captured later — were, 
with others, kept as hostages for the good be- 
haviour of the small remnant of the British 
Band and their Winnebago allies.^ They were 
kept through the winter at Jefferson Barracks 
(St. Louis),^ and in April, 1823, taken to 
Washington ; thence being sent as prisoners 
of war to Fortress Monroe, where they were 
discharged on the fourth of June. After visit- 
ing the principal cities of the East, in which 
Black Hawk was much lionized, and came for 
the first time to appreciate the power and re- 

95-101. There have been many traditions of the capture, 
differing from the above, but there is no documentary evi- 
dence to substantiate them. The account here followed is 
based upon Street's official report. Decorah received from 
Atkinson, at Dixon, twenty horses as his reward for the 
delivery. The originals of much of Street's correspondence 
as Indian Agent are in the Iowa and Wisconsin historical 
archives. 

1 Treaties, p. 50S. 

2 Lieutenant Jefferson Davis took charge of the transfer 
of the prisoners from Fort Armstrong to Jefferson Barracks. 
The Davis biography previously cited, says, " He entirely 
won the heart of the savage chieftain, and before they 
reached Jefferson Barracks there had sprung up between the 
stern red warrior and the young pale face a warm friendship 
which only terminated with the life of Black Hawk." 



The Black Hawk War 195 

sources of the whites, the party returned to Fort 
Armstrong, where they arrived about the first 
of August. Here the pride of the Sauk leader 
was completely crushed, he being formally 
transferred by the military authorities to the 
guardianship of his hated rival, Keokuk. This 
ceremony the fallen Black Hawk regarded as an 
irreparable insult, which he nursed with much 
bitterness through the remainder of his days. 
The broken-hearted warrior, with the weight 
of seventy-one years upon his whitened head, 
Death of passcd away on the third of October, 
the Hawk 1838, at his homc on a small reserva- 
tion which had been set apart for him and his 
few remaining followers, on the Des Moines 
River, in Davis County, lowa.-^ In July of the 
following year, an Illinois physician rifled his 
grave. Complaint being made by Black Hawk's 
family, Governor Lucas of Iowa, in the spring 
of 1840, caused the skeleton to be delivered to 
him at Burlington, then the capital of that 
Territory. Later in the year the seat of gov- 
ernment being moved to Iowa City, the box 

1 Cornelius Buckley writes, in the Beloit Weekly Free 
Press, October 15, 1891 : "He was buried in the northeast 
corner of Davis County, on section 2, township 70, range 12, 
ninety rods from where he died, and near the present village 
of Eldon." 



196 Essays in Western History 

containing the remains was deposited in a law 
office in that town, where it remained until the 
night of January 16, 1853, when the building 
was destroyed by fire.^ 

Black Hawk was an indiscreet man. His 
troubles were, in the main, the result of lack 
His of mental balance, aided largely by 

character uutoward circumstanccs. He was of 
a highly romantic temperament; his judgment 
was warped by sentiment; and tricksters easily 
played upon this weakness. But he was honest, 
— more honorable, often, than those who were 
his conquerors. He was, above all things, a 
patriot. In the year before his death, he made 
a speech to a party of whites who were making 
a holiday hero of him, and thus forcibly de- 
fended his motives : " Rock River was a beau- 
tiful country. I liked my town, my cornfields, 
and the home of my people. I fought for 
them." No poet could have penned for him a 
more touching epitaph. 

Forbearance, honorable dealing, and the ex- 
ercise of sound policy upon the part of the 
whites might easily have prevented the war, 

1 It had been designed to place the warrior's bones in the 
museum of the Iowa Historical and Geological Institute, but 
the fire occurred before the removal could take place. — Bur- 
lington (Iowa) Gazette, August 25, 188S. 



The Black Hawk War 197 

with its pitiful expenditure of blood and 
treasure. Squatters had been allowed with 
impunity to violate the spirit of treaty obli- 
gations, in harassing the Sauks in their ancient 
village long before the government had sold 
the land ; for six thousand dollars — a beggarly 
price for securing peace with a formidable 
band of starving savages, grown desperate 
from ill usage — Black Hawk would, in 1831, 
have removed his people to the west of the 
Mississippi, without any show of force ; ^ at 
Sycamore Creek, an observance of one of the 
oldest and most universally-established rules of 
war would have procured a peaceful retreat 
of the discouraged invaders; on the night of 
the Battle of Wisconsin Heights, reasonable 
prudence in keeping an interpreter in camp, in 
a hostile country, would have enabled Nea- 
pope's peaceful mission to succeed ; at the 
Bad Axe, as at Sycamore Creek, a decent 
regard for the accepted amenities of civilized 
warfare, on the part of the reckless soldiers 
on the steamer *' Warrior," would have secured 
an abject surrender of the entire hostile band, 
which was, instead, ruthlessly butchered ; while 
the sending out of Sioux bloodhounds upon the 
trail of the few worn-out fugitives, in the very 

1 Autobiography, pp. 99, lOO. 



198 Essays in Western History 

country beyond the great river to which the 
Sauks had been persistently ordered, capped 
the chmax of a bloody and costly contest 
characterized on our part by gross misman- 
agement, bad faith, and sheer heartlessness. 

It is generally stated in the published his- 
tories of those commonwealths that the defeat 
of Black Hawk opened to settlement 

What -was ^ 

accom- northern Illinois and the southern 
fished portion of what is now Wisconsin. 
Unquahfied, this statement is misleading. In- 
directly, it is true that the war proved a 
powerful agent in the development of that 
region. The British Band was in itself no 
obstacle to legitimate settlement, the fron- 
tiers of which were far removed from Black 
Hawk's village, and need not to have crowded 
it for several years to come. Although the 
natural outgrowth of the excitable condition 
of the border, the war was not essential as a 
means of clearing the path of civilization. 
What it did accomplish in the way of territo- 
rial development, was to call national attention, 
in a marked manner, to the attractions and re- 
sources of an important section of the North- 
west. The troops acted as explorers of a large 
tract concerning which nothing had hitherto 
definitely been known among white men. The 



The Black Hawk War 199 

Sauks themselves were, previous to their inva- 
sion, unacquainted with the Rock River valley 
above the mouth of the Kishwaukee, and had 
but vague notions of its swamps and lakes, 
gathered from their Winnebago guides, who 
alone were well informed on the subject. From 
Wisconsin Heights to the Bad Axe, every foot 
of the trackless way was as unknown to the 
Sauks and their pursuers as was the interior of 
Africa to Stanley, when he first groped his way 
across the Dark Continent. During and imme- 
diately following the war, the newspapers of 
the Eastern States w^ere filled with descriptions, 
more or less florid, of the scenic charms of, 
and the possibilities for, extractive industries 
in, the Rock River valley, of the groves and 
prairies on every hand, of the park-like region 
of the Four Lakes, of the Wisconsin River 
highlands, and of the picturesque hills and 
dense forests of Western Wisconsin. From the 
press were issued books and pamphlets by 
the score, giving sketches of the war and ac- 
counts of the newly discovered paradise — for 
the most part crude publications abounding in 
gross errors, and to-day practically unknown 
save to bibliographers and collectors. But in 
their own way and season they advertised the 
country and set flowing thither a tide of immi- 



200 Essays in Western History 

gratlon. There necessarily followed, in due 
time, the opening to sale of public lands here- 
tofore reserved, and the purchase of what terri- 
tory remained in the possession of the Indian 
tribes of the district. Quite as important, the 
decisive ending of this war with the Sauks 
completely humbled the spirit of the mischief- 
making Winnebagoes, so that they never re- 
sumed their old-time arrogant tone, and were 
quite content to allow the affair to remain the 
last of the Indian uprisings in either Illinois 
or Wisconsin. 

This incidental subduing of the Winneba- 
goes, and the broad and liberal advertising 
given to the theatre of disturbance, were there- 
fore the two practical and immediate results 
of the Black Hawk War, the consequence of 
which was at once to give an enormous impetus 
to the development of both the State of Illinois 
and the Territory of Wisconsin.^ 

1 Wisconsin Territory was erected in 1836. 



IV 

THE STORY OF MACKINAC 



M 



IV 

THE STORY OF MACKINAC 

■ACKINAC has played a considerable 
. . 1 part on the stage of Western history. 
Early recognized as a vantage-point, com- 
manding the commerce of the three uppermost 
^^,^^,u lakes of the great chain, - Huron. 
formastery Michigan, and Superior, — red men 
and white men have struggled for its mastery, 
tribe against tribe, nation against nation. The 
fleur-de-lis, the union jack, and the stars and 
stripes, have here each in their turn been 
symbols of conqueror and conquered; coun- 
cils have been held here, and treaties signed, 
which settled the political ownership of fertile 
regions as wide as all Europe; and when at 
last armed hostilities ceased through the final 
surrender to the Republic, when the toma- 
hawk was buried and the war-post painted 
white, a new warfare opened at Mackinac - 
the commercial struggle of the great fur-trade 
companies, whose rival banners contested the 



204 Essays in Westej'n History 

sway of lands stretching from Athabasca to 
the Platte, from the Columbia to Georgian Bay. 
It is a far cry from the invasion of Chippewa 
Michillimackinac by the long-haired coureurs 
de bois of New France, to the invasion of 
Mackinac Island by modern armies of summer 
tourists from New York and New England. 
In attempting, within this narrow compass, to 
tell the story of Mackinac, it will be imprac- 
ticable to take more than a bird's-eye view. 

In the first place, let us understand that 
the term Mackinac, as used in our earliest 
Three history, is the title of the entire dis- 

Mackinacs ^j.j^^ hcrcabout, as well as that of a 
particular settlement. There have been, in 
chronological succession, at least three distinct 
localities specifically styled Mackinac: (i) Be- 
tween 1670 and 1672, Mackinac Island, near 
the centre of the strait, was the seat of a 
French Jesuit mission. (2) From 1672 to 1706, 
the Mackinac of history was on the north side 
of the strait, upon Point St. Ignace, and wholly 
under the French regime. (3) From 17 12 to 
1 78 1 Mackinac was on the south side of the 
strait — until 1763, just west of the present 
Mackinaw City, and possibly between 1764 and 
1 78 1 at some point farther west along the coast 
of Lake Michigan; this south-side Mackinac 



The Story of Mackmac 205 

was at first French and then English, and the 
site near Mackinaw City has come to be known 
in history as " Old Mackinaw." Finally, the 
Mackinac settlement was in 1781 once more 
placed upon the island, and while at first under 
English domination at last became American. 
A remembrance of these facts will help to 
dispel the fog which has often obscured our 
historical view of Mackinac. 

That indefatigable explorer of high seas and 

pathless forests, Samuel de Champlain, planted 

the first permanent French colony in 

Champlain ^ , i r ^-^ i 

hears of Canada on the rock of Quebec, in 
Lake 1608 — only a twelvemonth later than 

Superior 

the establishment of Jamestown, and 
full twelve years before the coming to Plymouth 
of the Pilgrim Fathers. It was seven years be- 
fore Champlain saw Lake Huron, his farthest 
point west in the limitless domain which the 
King of France had set him to govern. Twenty- 
one years had passed — years of heroic strug- 
gling to push back the walls of savagery which 
hemmed him in; when one day there came 
to Quebec, in the fleet of Indian canoes from 
this far northwest, — which annually picked 
its way over fifteen hundred miles of rugged 
waterways beset with a multitude of terrors, — 
a naked Algonkin, besmeared with grease and 



2o6 Essays in Western History 

colored clays, who laid at the feet of the great 
white chief a lump of copper mined on the 
shores of Lake Superior. A shadowy region 
this, as far removed from the ordinary haunts 
of the adventurous woodsmen of New France 
as were the headwaters of the Nile from the 
African explorers of a generation ago, and 
quite as dangerous of access. 

It was five years later (1634) before Cham- 
plain could see his way to sending a proper 
Jean emissary into the Northwest. Finally 

Ntcoiet Qj^g ^^g found in the person of young 
Jean Nicolet, whom Champlain had had trained 
in the forest for tasks hke this. Conveyed by 
Indian oarsmen engaged by relays in the sev- 
eral tribes through which he passed, Nicolet 
pushed up the St. Lawrence, portaged around 
the rapids at Lachine, ascended the trough 
of the turbulent Ottawa with its hundred water- 
falls, portaged over to Lake Nipissing, de- 
scended French Creek to Georgian Bay, and 
threading the gloomy archipelago of the Mani- 
toulins, sat at last in a Chippewa council at 
Sault Ste. Marie. Doubtless he here heard 
of Lake Superior, not many miles away, but 
it does not appear that he saw its waters. In- 
tent on finding a path which led to the China 
Sea, supposed not to be far beyond this point, 



The Story of Mackinac 207 

he turned south again, and pushing on through 
the straits of Mackinac found and traversed 
Lake Michigan. He traded and made treaties 
with the astonished tribesmen of Wisconsin 
and Illinois, who in him saw their first white 
man, and thus brought the Northwest within 
the sphere of French influence.^ 

Seven years later the Jesuit missionaries, 
Jogues and Raymbault, following in the path 
The of Nicolet, said mass before two thou- 

earliest ^^^^ breech-cloutcd savages at Sault 
Ste. Marie. Affairs moved slowly 
in the seventeenth century, upon these far- 
away borders of New France. Jogues and 
Raymbault had long been ashes before the 
Northwest again appeared on the pages of 
history ; nearly a generation had passed be- 
fore the daring forest traders and explorers, 
Radisson and Groseilliers, arrived upon the 
scene (1658-62), discovered the Upper Mis- 
sissippi, discovered Lake Superior, and first 

1 Authorities on Nicolet are : Butterfield's History of the 
Discovery of the Northzvest by John Nicolet (Cincinnati, 1881) ; 
Gosselin's Les iVormands an Canada — Jeatt Nicolet (Evreux, 
1893) ; Jouan's " Interprete voyageur au Canada, 1618-1642," 
in La Revue Canadienne, Fevrier, 1S86; Suite's Melanges 
d'histoire et de litteratiire (Ottawa, 1876) ; articles by Garneau, 
Ferland, Suite, etc., in Wis. Historical Collections ; and a 
bibliography by Butterfield in ibid., xi., pp. 23, 25. 



2o8 Essays in Western History 

made known to the English the fur-trading 
capabihties of the Hudson Bay region. The 
Hudson's Bay Company was organized in 
London, with these renegade Frenchmen as 
their pilots, in 1670; the following year, at 
Sault Ste. Marie, where the Jesuits had a fairly 
prosperous mission, Saint-Lusson formally 
took possession of the great Northwest for 
the French king.^ I suppose that Saint- 
Lusson, when he floated the banner of France 
at the gateway of Lake Superior, knew nothing 
of his English neighbors, the Hudson's Bay 
Company; unconsciously he made an im- 
portant play for France on the American 
chess-board; but a century later England 
won the game. 

Those who have read Parkman's Jesuits'^ 
will remember that the Hurons, whose habitat 
Flight of had long been upon the eastern shores 
theHtcrons of Georgian Bay, retreated northward 
and westward before the advance of the all- 
conquering Iroquois. At first taking refuge 
with starving Algonkins on the Manitoulin 
Islands, and on the mainland hereabout, they 

1 See Saint-Lusson's proces-verbal (June 14, 1671), in 
Wis. Hist. Colls., xi., pp. 26-29. 

2 The present article, however, is in this respect based 
upon Thvvaites's The Jesuit Relations and Allied Docuinciiis 
(Cleveland, 1896-1902). 



The Story of Mackinac 209 

were soon driven forth by their merciless foe, 
and made their stand in the swamps and 
tangled woods of far-away Wisconsin. Many 
of them centred upon Chequamegon Bay, the 
island-locked estuary near the southwest corner 
of Lake Superior, the ancient home of the 
Chippewas. Here Radisson and Groseilliers 
visited and traded with them.^ The Jesuit 
Menard, who had accompanied these adven- 
turers, — the first missionary to follow in the 
wake of Jogues and Raymbault, — had stopped 
at Keweenaw Bay to minister to the Ottawas, 
and later lost his life while trying to reach a 
village of Hurons, crouching, fear-stricken, in 
the forest fastnesses around the headwaters 
of the Black River. ^ 

Then came, three years later (1665), Father 
At Chzqua- AUouez, to rcopcu at Chequamegon 
megonBay j^^y |-j^g Jesuit missiou on our great- 
est inland sea. Alloiiez being ordered, after 

1 Radisson's *' Journal " first appeared in Prince Soc. 
Pubs., xvi. (Boston, 18S5). Portions were published with 
notes, in Wis. Hist. Cells. ^ xi. See the following monographs 
on this subject: Campbell's "Exploration of L. Superior," 
Parkman Chib Pubs., No. 2 (Milw., 1896), and Moore's "Dis- 
coveries of L. Superior,'* in Mich. Polit. Sci. Ass. Pubs., ii., 
No. 5 (Ann Arbor, 1897). 

2 See Campbell's " Pere Rene Menard," Parkman Club 
Pubs., No. II (Milw., 1897). 

14 



2 1 o Essays in Western History 

four years of arduous and I fear unprofitable 
labor at Chequamegon, to found a mission 
at Green Bay, was succeeded (1669) t)y the 
youthful Marquette. But Marquette was not 
long at Chequamegon before his half-naked 
parishioners provoked to quarrel their power- 
ful western neighbors, the Sioux, the result 
being (1671) that the Chequamegon bands, 
and Marquette with them, were driven like 
leaves before an autumn blast eastward along 
the southern shore of the great lake ; the 
Ottawas taking up their homes in the Mani- 
toulin Islands, the Hurons accompanying Mar- 
quette to the island of Mackinac, where, the 
previous year, the Jesuits had founded the 
mission of St. Ignace. 

Mackinac Island was then noted throughout 

this region for its abundance of fish, in both 

summer and winter: also because it 

Hurons 

return to stood in the path to and from the 
Mackinac sQ^^hwest. In formcr days the island 
and the neighboring mainland had been thickly 
populated by several tribes of Indians who had 
been driven westward by the Iroquois. Now 
that peace with the Iroquois had been estab- 
lished, with hopes of its being permanent, the 
tribesmen had again flocked to the straits, mak- 
ing the region highly desirable as a mission resi- 



The Story of Mackinac 2 1 1 

dcnce. It was therefore to their old homes on 
the island that the Hurons now returned with 
Marquette. Here the young priest ministered 
to the miserable savages about him, and to the 
handful of nomadic fur-trade employes who 
in spring and autumn gathered at this isolated 
frontier station of New France on their way 
to and from the great wilderness beyond. 

Soon after his arrival, apparently within a 
year, the mission was moved to the mainland, 
Removal to on the sitc of the present village of 
St. ignace gj. Jgnace. There is abundant ground 
for behef that the St. Ignace monument, which 
is visited each summer by thousands of tourists, 
represents the place where stood the *' rude 
and unshapely chapel, its sides of logs and its 
roof of bark," in which Marquette thereafter 
conducted the offices of the Church. Under 
what circumstances the removal took place, 
we know not. Quite likely the island, at first 
resorted to because of its safety from attack 
by foes, was found too small for the villages 
and fields of the Indians who now centred here 
in large numbers ; and moreover was found 
difficult of approach in time of summer storm, 
or when the ice was weak in spring and early 
winter. The long continuance of peace with 
the Iroquois removed for the time all danger 



212 Essays in Western History 

from that quarter, and events proved that they 
had made their last attack upon the tribesmen 
of these far Western waters. 

Louis JoUiet, a coureur de bois, was sent forth 
by the authorities at Quebec (1672) to explore 
joiiietand ^^^ Mississippi River, about which so 
Marquette much had bccu heard, and by that 
route to reach, if may be, the Great Western 
Ocean — for the road to India, either through 
the continent or by way of the Northwest 
Passage, \vas still being sought in those 
days. He arrived in December at Point St. 
Ignace, bringing orders to Marquette to ac- 
company him. The conversion of the Indians 
went hand in hand, in New France, with 
the extension of commerce; no trading-post 
was complete without its missionary, no explor- 
ing expedition without its ghostly counsellor. 
Marquette, a true soldier of the cross, obeyed 
his marching orders, and on the seventeenth 
of May following, handed his spiritual task 
over to Father Philippe Pearson, and went 
forth to help discover unknown lands and 
carry to their peoples the word of Christ. 
With JoUiet he entered the Upper Missis- 
sippi at Prairie du Chien, and proceeded far 
enough down the great river to establish the 
fact that it emptied into the Gulf of Mexico 



The Story of Mackinac 2 1 3 

and not the Pacific Ocean. It is possible that 
Radisson and GroseiUiers were on the Missis- 
sippi thirteen years before them; but Radis- 
son's Journal, written in England long after, 
was not published until our own time, and it is 
not at all likely that Jolliet and Marquette, or 
any one else of importance in New France, 
ever heard of this prior claim. The merit of 
carefully planned, premeditated discovery cer- 
tainly rests with Jolliet and his companion. 

It so happened — the story of the swamping 

of Jolliet's home-returning canoe in the wild 

rapids of Lachine is a familiar one — 

Mar- ^ 

quette's that the detailed journals and maps 
Journal ^|- ^|^^ chief Were lost; whereas the 
simple story which Marquette wrote at the 
Green Bay mission and transmitted by Indian 
courier to his father superior at Quebec, reached 
its destination and was published to the world 
for the glory of the church. Thus it was that 
the gentle, unassuming Marquette became un- 
wittingly its only historian ; fate willed that his 
name should be more commonly associated 
with the great discovery than that of his secular 
companion. Four years later the weary bones 
of this missionary-explorer, who had died on 
his way thither from the savage camps of the 
Illinois, were laid to rest " in a little vault in 



2 1 4 Essays in Western History 

the middle of the chapel " at St. Ignace. In 
September, 1877, when antiquarians could but 
ingeniously guess at the site of this early mis- 
sion in the wilderness, the bones of Father 
Marquette were discovered in the rude grave 
wherein they had rested for two centuries, and 
to-day are visible relics for inspiration to deeds 
of holiness.^ 

Throughout the seventeenth century the 
outpost of Mackinac at Point St. Ignace — 
A French MichlUimacklnac, in those easy-go- 
oiitpost jj^g days when there was more time 
in which to pronounce the name — remained 
the most important French military and trad- 
ing station in the upper lakes, for it guarded 
the gateway between Huron, Michigan, and 
Superior ; and every notable expedition to the 
Northwest waters had perforce to stop here. 
We must not think of this Mackinac of the 

1 A detailed account, in German, of the discovery (said 
to have been written by Father Edward Jacker, then the 
Catholic missionary at St. Ignace) appeared first in the St. 
Louis Pastoral-BlaU ; an English translation was published 
in the Green Bay (Wis.) Advocate, August 29, 187S. The site 
of the old mission was discovered May 4, but the remains of 
Marquette were not exhumed until September 3. See contro- 
versial articles in the St. Louis Sunday Messenger, June 24, 
1877, and in the Chicago Times, August 14 and 29, and 
September 13, 1879. For details of Marquette's career, see 
Thwaites's Father Marquette (New York, 1902). 



The Story of Machmac 2 1 5 

seventeenth centiny, strategetically important 
though it was, as a settlement in any modern 
sense. The poHcy of the rulers of New France 
was to maintain the interior of the continent 
as a fur-bearing wilderness. Unlike Anglo- 
Saxons, they had no desire to plant settle- 
ments simply as settlements. They had not the 
colonizing spirit of Englishmen. To carry 
the fur-trade to the uttermost limits, to bring 
the savages to at least a nominal recognition 
of the cross, were their chief aims ; to this 
end, palisaded trading-posts, which they rather 
grandiloquently called forts, were established 
throughout the country, the officers of which 
were rare diplomatists, and bullied and cajoled 
the red men as occasion demanded. Around 
each of these little forts, and Mackinac was 
one of them, were small groups of habitants, 
voyageurs, and coureurs de bois, who could 
hardly be called colonists, for few of them 
expected to lay their bones in the wilderness, 
but eventually to return to their own people 
on the Lower St. Lawrence, when enriched or 
their working days were over. It was rather 
an army of occupation than a body of settlers. 
The little log fort at Mackinac, calculated only 
to withstand a fusillade of savage arrows and 
musket-balls, was the principal feature of the 



2i6 Essays i7i Western History 

place, and the commandant the chief person- 
age. After him, the long-robed Jesuit, and 
then the swarm of folk dependent on the spas- 
modic fur-trade. 

In the year of grace 1701, the little group 
upon Point St. Ignace received word one day 
Establish ^^^^^ ^ "^^^ post, called Detroit, had 
tnent of bccn established away down in the 
Detroit unknown country at the narrow mouth 
of Lake Huron, which was henceforth, under 
one Cadillac, to be the centre of commerce in 
these Western parts. Heretofore, owing to the 
Iroquois stoutly holding the lower lakes against 
the French, progress to the far Northwest had 
been altogether by way of the raging Ottawa. 
But now, after seventy- five long years of 
journeying by that toilsome route, it had from 
various reasons become possible to come to 
Mackinac through Lakes Ontario and Erie. 
This new post, Detroit, was to command a still 
wider range than that of Mackinac ; the gar- 
rison was soon withdrawn thither; the fur- 
traders, both white and Indian, for the most 
part soon followed — it was easy for a popu- 
lation like this to pull up stakes and hie away 
at beat of drum. Nearly everybody went to 
the new Mecca, save the Jesuit missionaries, 
who were not wanted by this new man Cadillac, 



The Story of Mackinac 2 1 7 

a hater of the ** black robes." For five years 
the good fathers — there were then three 
of them — maintained their Httle chapel and 
school here on Point St. Ignace; but they 
ministered to an ever-decreasing, disorderly 
flock, and at last, burning their crude build- 
ings, with a few white followers retired dis- 
comfited to Quebec. 

For six years there does not appear to have 
been any French establishment hereabout. But 
"(9/^ in 1712 Governor-General Vaudreuil 

Macki7tatv'' ^^^^ j^g Louvigny, a noted frontier 
captain, to restore the abandoned post on the 
upper waters. This he did, but upon the south 
shore of the strait, not far west of the present 
Mackinaw City; and over there on the main- 
land, at what came in time to be known as 
"Old Mackinaw,"^ — although it was, as we 

1 Note the orthographic change. The historic name is 
Mackinac, an abbreviation of Michillimackinac, and such is 
to-day the legal designation of Fort Mackinac, Strait of 
Mackinac, and Mackinac Island; but the pronunciation 
is Mack'inaw. The spelling has been made phonetic in the 
cases of Old Mackinaw and Mackinaw City, to distinguish 
them from the island, and many writers prefer to use the 
phonetic form whenever mentioning any of the several 
Mackinacs. A cultured native of Mackinac Island has told 
me that, so far as he knew, but one person pronounced it 
Macki;/rtc/^; and he was Samuel Abbott, of the American 
P'ur Company, who in his day was regarded as an eccentric. 



2i8 Essays in Western History 

have seen, not the oldest Mackinac, — occurred 
such historic events as are spread upon the 
records to the credit of this name between 
1 71 2 and 1763. It was on the log ramparts 
of Old Mackinaw that, in token of the fall of 
New France, the fleur-de-lis was at last hauled 
down on September 28, 1761, and the union 
jack proudly lifted to the breeze. Here, upon 
the fourth of June, 1763, occurred that cruel 
massacre of the English garrison, which Park- 
man has so vividly described for us in his 
Conspiracy of Pontiac. 

A year or more later the English rebuilt their 
fort, but whether or not upon the site of the 
T/te massacre is a moot question. There 

English appears to be good reason for the 
belief that it was among the sand-dunes farther 
west along the coast ; for in the official corre- 
spondence of the next fifteen years there is 
much complaint upon the part of command- 
ants that their ** rickety picket is commanded 
by sand hills" — a condition which does not 
exist at the old site near Mackinaw City. 

To this rickety picket there came one 
October day, in the year 1779, Patrick Sin- 
clair, lieutenant-governor of Michillimackinac 
and its dependencies, charged with the rebuild- 
ing and enlarging of his Majesty's post in these 



The Sto7y of Mackinac 2 1 9 

parts. The Revolutionary War was in progress. 
George Rogers Clark had captured Kaskaskia 
and Vincennes; his emissaries were treating 
with Indian chiefs away ofif in Wisconsin ; there 
were rumours of Clark's intended foray on 
Detroit ; and some suspicions that the '' Bos- 
tonnais," as the French Canadians called these 
leather-shirted Virginians, had designs of put- 
ting a war vessel upon Lake Michigan. Sin- 
clair saw at once that the old site was untenable 
and the fort beyond repair. 

In advance of orders he made a bold step. 
Seven miles away to the northeast of Old 
The island Mackinaw, in the midst of the strait, 
reoccupied j^y ^^ comcly island whereon had 
first been established, a hundred and nine years 
before, the Jesuit mission of St. Ignace — " La 
Grosse Isle," the Canadians called it, although 
smaller than its neighbor, Bois Blanc. The 
Indians deemed it a sort of shrine, where at 
times they gathered at their medicine feasts, 
and to which, as to a sanctuary, they fled in 
periods of extreme danger. Frenchmen were 
more considerate of the superstitions of the 
dusky tribesmen than were the intolerant 
English. This now untenanted island Sinclair 
appropriated to the king's use, although some 
eighteen months later he formally bought it 



220 Essays in Wester 7 1 History 

from the Indians for ^^5000, New York cur- 
rency. A month after his arrival the Heutenant- 
governor began to erect a durable fort on the 
island, and thither, upon receiving tardy per- 
mission from his superiors, he finally removed 
in the spring of 1781, with him going the now 
revived Catholic mission and the entire fur-trade 
colony from the south shore. The new fort 
still bore the name of Fort Mackinac, and La 
Grosse Isle of the French henceforth was 
known in the English reports as Mackinac 
Island. 

By the treaty of Paris (1783), Mackinac 
came within the boundary of the United States ; 
Arrival of but the English still held the whip- 
Americans hand in thcsc parts, and upon sundry 
pretexts continued to hold this and other lake 
posts until the Jay treaty set matters right. 
In October, 1796, American troops first took 
possession of the post, and this gateway to the 
upper lakes was at last ours. The English, 
however, were still hopeful that they would 
some day win this part of the country back 
again, and their garrison retired to Isle St. 
Josephs, only some forty miles to the north- 
east, where in 1795 they had built a fort. 

The French and half-breeds did not at first 
relish Yankee interference in their beloved 



The Story of Mackinac 221 

Northwest. They had maintained harmonious 
relations with the Engh'sh, who fostered the 
fur-trade and employed the French with liber- 
ality. Then, too, among the Creoles the repu- 
tation of these Americans was not of the best. 
They were known to be a busy, bustling, 
driving people, quite out of tune with the 
easy-going methods of the French, and were, 
moreover, an agricultural race that was fast 
narrowing the limits of the hunting-grounds. 
The Frenchmen felt that their interests in this 
respect were identical with those of the savages, 
hence we find in the correspondence of the 
time a bitter tone adopted towards the new- 
comers, who were regarded as intruders and 
covetous disturbers of existing commercial and 
social relations. 

When war broke out between England and 
the United States, in 1812, naturally the Creoles 
Ef lish ^^ ^^ Northwest were against us, and 
capture the freely entered the service of their old 
"'"" and well-tried friends, the English. 

Fort Mackinac was then garrisoned by "57 
effective men, including officers." There had 
been no news sent here of the declaration of 
war, although the American lieutenant in 
charge, Porter Hanks, was expecting it. July 
17, 18 1 2, a British force of a thousand whites 



222 Essays in Western History 

and Indians from Fort St. Josephs secretly 
effected a landing at the cove on the north- 
west shore of the island, — known to-day as 
" British Landing," — took possession of the 
heights overlooking the fort, and then coolly 
informed the commandant that hostilities had 
been declared between the two nations, and a 
surrender would be in order. The Americans 
were clearly at the mercy of the enemy, and 
promptly capitulated. 

The old fort had from the first been in poor 
condition. The English, once more in posses- 
sion, built a new and stronger fort upon the 
higher land to the rear, which they had occu- 
pied, and named it Fort George, in honor of 
their sovereign. This stronghold was stormed 
on the fourth of August, 1814, by United 
States troops under Colonel George Croghan, 
who also disembarked at British Landing. 
The English position, however, was too strong 
for the assailants, who lost heavily under the 
galling fire of the French and Indian allies, 
and Croghan was obliged to retire. Among 
his dead was Major Holmes, a soldier of con- 
siderable reputation. 

The treaty of Ghent resulted In the forti- 
fication being restored to the United States, 
the transfer being actually made on July 18, 



The Story of Mackinac 223 

181 5. Colonel McDouall, the British com- 
mander at Mackinac, was loath to leave. His 
Americans dcspatchcs to headquarters plainly 
regaintheir indicate that he thought his govern- 

footiitg , . . , 

ment weak in surrendering to the 
Americans, for whom he had a decided con- 
tempt, this Malta of the Northwest. When at 
last obliged to depart, he went no farther than 
necessary — indeed not quite so far, for he 
built a fort upon Drummond Island, at the 
mouth of River St. Mary, territory soon there- 
after found to belong to the United States. It 
was not until thirteen years later (1828) that 
the English forces were finally and reluctantly 
withdrawn from Drummond Island/ and Eng- 
lish agents upon our northern frontier ceased 
craftily to stir our uneasy Indian wards to 
bickerings and strife. 

When the United States resumed possession 
of Mackinac Island the name of the fort built 
by the English on the highest ground was 
changed from Fort George to Fort Holmes, in 
honor of the victim of the assault of the year 
before ; but later this position was abandoned, 
and old Fort Mackinac, built by Sinclair and 

1 In his Drummo/i(/ /s/a7id (La.ns'mg, Mich., 1S96), Samuel 
F. Cook has given the history of the British occupation 
thereof, with numerous illustrations of the ruins and sur- 
roundings of the old fort. 



2 24 Essays in Western History 

capitulated by Hanks, was rehabilitated, and 
remains to this day as the military stronghold 
of the district. 

The name of Mackinac will always be inti- 
mately associated with the story of the fur- 
trade. We have seen that the first settlement 
Centre of the upon the shorcs of thcsc straits had 
fur-trade j|-g inception in the primitive com- 
merce of the woods ; and chiefly as a pro- 
tection to this trade the several forts were 
maintained under changing flags unto our own 
day. In 1783 the North West Fur Company 
opened headquarters here; later, the Mackinac 
Company and the South West Fur Company 
were formidable competitors; in 1 81 5, with the 
re-establishment of the American arms, came 
the American Fur Company, of which John 
Jacob Astor was the controlUng spirit. 

We cannot fully understand the course of 
history in this region unless we remember that 
despite the treaty of Ghent (1783), Jay's treaty 
(1794), Wayne's Indian treaty at Greenville 
(1795), and the occupation of Fort Mackinac 
by United States troops between 1796 and 
18 12, the fur-trade upon the upper lakes and 
beyond was not really under American control 
until after the War of 1812-15; indeed, the 
territory itself was not until that time within 



The Story of Mackinac 225 

the sphere of American influence, beyond the 
visible Hmits of the armed camps at Mackinac 
and Green Bay. After the Jay treaty, British 
traders, with French and half-breed clerks and 
voyageurs, were still permitted free intercourse 
with the savages of our Northwest, and held 
substantial domination over them. The Mack- 
inac, North West, and South West companies 
were composed of British subjects — Scotch- 
men mainly — with headquarters at Montreal, 
and distributing points at Detroit, Mackinac, 
Sault Ste. Marie, and Grand Portage. Their 
clerks and voyageurs were wide travellers, and 
carried the forest trade throughout the Far 
West, from Great Slave Lake on the north to 
the valleys of the Platte and the Arkansas on 
south, and to the parks and basins of the 
Rocky Mountains. Goods were sent up the 
lakes from Montreal, either by relays of sailing 
vessels, with portages of men and merchandise 
at the Falls of Niagara and the Sault Ste. 
Marie, or by picturesque fleets of bateaux and 
canoes up the Ottawa River and down French 
Creek into Georgian Bay, from there scattering 
to the companies' various entrepots of the 
South, West, and North.^ 

1 See Turner's " Fur Trade in Wisconsin," Wis. Hist, Soc. 
Proc, 1889. 



2 26 Essays in Western History 

The Creole boatmen were a reckless set. 
They took life easily, but bore ill the mildest 
The restraints of the trading settlements; 

Creoles their home was on the lakes and rivers 
and in Indian camps, where they joyously par- 
took of the most humble fare, and on occasion 
were not averse to suffering extraordinary 
hardships in the service of their bourgeois. 
Their pay was light, but their thoughts were 
lighter, and the vaulted forest rang with the gay 
laughter of these heedless adventurers ; while 
the pent-up valleys of our bluff-girted streams 
echoed the refrains of their rudely melodious 
boating songs, which served the double purpose 
of whiling the hours away and measuring prog- 
ress along the glistening waterways. 

In Irving's Astoria is a charming description 
of fur-trading life at the Grand Portage of 
Lake Superior, over which boats and cargoes 
were carried from the eastward-flowing Pigeon 
to the tortuous waters which glide through 
a hundred sylvan lakes and over a hundred 
dashing rapids into the wide-reaching system 
of Lake Winnipeg and the Assiniboin.^ The 
book records the heroic trans-continental expe- 

1 For historical sketch of Grand Portage, see Wis. Hist. 
Colls., xi., pp. 123-125. See N. Y. Nation, Dec. 23, 1897, pp. 
499-501, for corrections of Astoria. 



The Story of Mackinac 227 

dition of Wilson and Hunt, which started from 
Mackinac one bright morning in August, 1809, 
and wended its toilsome way along many a 
river and through mountain-passes, beset by 
a thousand perils, to plant far-distant Astoria. 

With the coming of peace in 181 5, English 
fur-traders were forbidden the country, and 
American interests, represented by Astor's 
great company, were at last dominant in this 
great field of commerce. New and improved 
methods were introduced, and the American 
Fur Company soon had a firm hold upon the 
Western country; nevertheless, the great cor- 
poration never succeeded in ridding itself of the 
necessity of employing the Creole and mixed- 
blood voyageurs, engages, and interpreters, 
and was obliged to shape its policy so as to 
accommodate this great army of easy-going 
subordinates. 

The fur-trade of Mackinac was in its heyday 
about the year 1820. Gradually, with the in- 
Modern rush of Settlement and the consequent 
^■^^ cutting of the timber, the commerce 

of the forest waned, until about 1840 it was 
practically at an end, and the halcyon days of 
Mackinac were over. For years it was promi- 
nent as the site of a Protestant mission to the 
modernized Indians of Michic^an and Wis- 



228 Essays in Western History 

consin ; ^ finally, even this special interest was 
removed to new seats of influence, nearer the 
vanishing tribes, and Mackinac became re- 
signed to the hum-drum of modern life — a 
sort of Malta, now but spasmodically gar- 
risoned ; a fishing station for the Chicago 
trade ; a port of call for vessels passing her 
door; a resort for summer tourists; a scene 
which the historical novelist may dress to his 
fancy ; a shrine at which the historical pilgrim 
may worship, thankful, indeed, that in what 
many think the Sahara of Western history are 
left a few romantic oases Hke unto this. 

1 For an account of this experiment, see Williams's The 
Old Mission Clncrch of Mackinac Is/and {Detroit, 1895). 



V 

THE STORY OF LA POINTE 



THE STORY OF LA POINTE 

IN 1634, when the child born upon the 
" Mayflower " was but fourteen years of 
age, Jean Nicolet, a daring young 
Nicoid explorer, was despatched by the 
enterprising Champlain upon a journey of 
discovery as far as Wisconsin, a thousand miles 
of canoe journey west from Quebec. In that 
far distant region, Nicolet made trading con- 
tracts, such as they were, with a half-score of 
squalid tribes huddled in widely-separated 
villages throughout the broad wilderness lying 
between Lakes Superior and Michigan. It 
was a hazardous, laborious expedition, far 
more notable in its day than, in our time, is 
a journey through Thibet. Its results were 
slow of development, for in the seventeenth 
century man was still cautiously deliberate; 
nevertheless this initial visit of the forest am- 
bassador of New France to the country of the 
Upper Lakes broke the path for a train of 



232 Essays in Western History 

events which were of mighty significance in 
American history. 

Let us examine the topography of Wiscon- 
sin. That State is situated at the head of the 
chain of Great Lakes. It is touched 

Topograph- . 1 t 1 •« /r • 1 • 1 

teal signifi- on the east by Lake Michigan, on the 
canceof north by Lake Superior, on the west 

Wisconsin . , t.,. . . . . . , . , , 

by the Mississippi, and is drained by 
interlacing rivers which so closely approach 
each other that the canoe voyager may with 
ease pass from one great water system to 
another. He may enter the continent by the 
Gulf of St. Lawrence, and by utilizing numerous 
narrow portages in Wisconsin emerge into the 
south-flowing Mississippi, eventually returning 
to the Atlantic through the Gulf of Mexico. 
From Lake Michigan, the Fox-Wisconsin river 
system was the most feasible of the several high- 
ways to the great river. Lito Lake Superior 
there flow numerous turbulent streams from 
whose sources short portage trails lead over to 
the headwaters of feeders of the Mississippi. 
From the western shore of Lake Superior, 
Pigeon River invites to exploration of the Win- 
nipeg country, whence the canoeist may by a 
half-hundred easy routes reach the distant re- 
gions of Athabasca and the Polar Sea, and — 
as Mackenzie found — even the Pacific Ocean. 



The Story of La Pointe 233 

In their early voyages to the head of lake 
navigation, it was in the course of nature that 
the French should soon discover Wisconsin, 
and having discovered it, learn that this was the 
key-point of the Northwest, — the principal 
waterway to the continental interior. Through 
Wisconsin's interlacing streams, to which Nico- 
let led the way, New France largely prosecuted 
her far-reaching forest trade and missionary ex- 
plorations, securing a nominal control of the 
basin of the Mississippi at a time when Anglo- 
Saxons had gained little more of the Atlantic 
Slope than could be seen from the mast-head 
of a caravel. Thus, early in the history of 
New France, the geographical character of 
Wisconsin became an important factor. The 
trading posts and Jesuit missions on Chequa- 
megon Bay^ of Lake Superior, Hke those on 
Green Bay ^ of Lake Michigan, soon played a 
prominent part in American exploration.^ 

1 In his authoritative " History of the Ojibway Nation," 
in Alhin. Hist. Colls., v., Warren prefers the spelling *• Cha- 
gouniigon," although recognizing " Shagawaumikong" and 
" Shaugahwaumikong." " Chequamegon " is the current 
modern form. Edward P. Wheeler, of Ashland, an authority 
on the Chippewa tongue and traditions, says the pronuncia- 
tion should be " Sheh-gu-wah-mi-kung." 

2 See Neville and Martin's Historic Green Bay (Milwaukee, 
1894), and various articles in the Wisconsitt Historical 
Collections. 

8 See Minn. Hist. Colls., v., pp. 98, 99, note, and Wis. 



2 34 Essays in Western History 

After Nicolet's journey to Wisconsin, there 
followed a long period in which the energies 
of New France were devoted to lighting back 
the Iroquois, who often swarmed before the 
very gates of Quebec and Montreal. Explo- 
ration was for the time wellnigh impossible. 
Twenty-one years elapse before we have evi- 
dence of another white man treading Wisconsin 
soil. In the spring of 1655, the Indians of the 
Fox River valley were visited by two 

Radisson 

and Gro- r rcnch fur-tradcrs from the Lower 
seiiiiers on g|.^ Lawrcncc, — Pierre d'Esprit, Sieur 

the Fox ^ 

Radisson, and his sister's husband, 
Medard Chouart, Sieur des Groseilliers. There 
are no characters in American history more 
picturesque than these two adventurous traders, 
who, in their fond desire to '* travell and see 
countries," and "to be known w*^ the remotest 
people," roamed at will over the broad region 
between St. James's Bay and the Wisconsin 
River, having many curious and perilous ex- 
periences. They made several important 
geographical discoveries — among them, pos- 

Hist. Colls., xvi. and xvii., for accounts of early copper mining 
on Lake Superior by Indians. In the summer of 1892, 
W. H. Holmes, of the Smithsonian Institution, found on 
Isle Royale no less than a thousand abandoned shafts which 
had been worked by them; and "enough stone implements 
lay around, to stock every museum in the country." 



The Story of La Pointe 235 

sibly, the discovery of the Mississippi River, 
eighteen years before the visit of Jolliet and 
Marquette; while from a trading settlement 
which they proposed to the English, when ill- 
treated by their fellow-countrymen, developed 
the great establishment of the Hudson's Bay 
Company. The unconsciously-amusing narra- 
tive which Radisson afterwards wrote, for the 
edification of King Charles II. of England, is 
one of the most interesting known to American 
antiquaries.^ 

Five years after Radisson and Groseilliers 
were upon Fox River, they were again in 
Atcheqiia- the Northwcst, this time upon Lake 
megon Bay SupcHor, which they had approached, 
in the company of a party of Huron refugees, 
by carrying around the Sault Ste. Marie. 
Skirting the southern shore of the lake, 

1 SQe/esziit Relations, xlv., pp. 235-237, for Father Lalle- 
mant's report of the discoveries of the " two Frenchmen," 
who had found "a beautiful River, large, wide, deep, and 
worthy of comparison, they say, with our great river St. 
Lawrence." 

In Franquelin's map of 16SS, what is now Pigeon River, a 
part of the international boundary between Minnesota and 
Canada, is called Groseilliers. An attempt was made in the 
Wisconsin Legislature, during the session of 1S95, by mem- 
bers of the Wisconsin Historical Society, to have a proposed 
new county called Radisson ; the name was adopted by the 
friends of the bill, but the measure itself failed to pass. 



236 Essays in Western History 

past the now famous Pictured Rocks, the 
traders and their savage companions carried 
across Keweenaw Point, visited a band of 
Christine Indians ^ not far from the mouth of 
Montreal River, now the far western boundary 
between upper Michigan and Wisconsin, and, 
portaging across the base of Point Chequame- 
gon, — then united to the mainland, but now 
insular, — entered beautiful Chequamegon Bay. 
Just where the Frenchmen made their camp, 
it is impossible from Radisson's confused nar- 
rative to say ; but that it was upon the main- 
land, no Wisconsin antiquary now doubts. 
We have reason to believe that it was upon 
the southwest shore, between the modern 
towns of Ashland and Washburn.^ 

Writes our chronicler, with a homeliness of 
detail suggestive of De P'oe : '' We went about 
to make a fort of stakes, w*"^ was in this manner. 
Suppose that the watter-side had ben in one 
end ; att the same end there should be mur- 

1 Now called Crees. 

2 Father Verwyst's " Historic Sites on Chequamegon Bay," 
in Wis. Hist. Colls., xi., pp. 426-440, is accompanied by notes 
on the site of Radisson's fort, by Sam. S. Fifield and Edward 
P. Wheeler. Verwyst thinks the location to have been 
"somewhere between Whittlesey's Creek and Shore's Land- 
ing ; " Fifield and Wheeler are confident that it was at 
Boyd's Creek. 



The Story of La Pointe 237 



therers, and att need we made a bastion in a 
triangle to defend us from assault. The doore 
was neare the watter-side, our fire was in the 




Chequamegon Bay 

midle, and our bed on the right hand, covered. 
There were boughs of trees all about our fort 
layed acrosse, one uppon an other. Besides 



238 Essays in Western History 

those boughs, we had a long cord tyed w"' some 
small bells, vv''^ weare sentereys. Finally, we 
made an ende to that fort in 2 dayes' time." 
First habi' Modernize this statement, and in im- 
tation of agination we can see this first dwell- 
■wnttemeii j^^ reared by white men on the 
shores of Lake Superior: a small log hut, 
built possibly on the extremity of a small 
rocky promontory; the door opens to the 
water front, while the land side, to the rear of 
the hut, is defended by a salient of palisades 
stretching from bank to bank of the narrow 
promontory ; all about the rude structure is a 
wall of pine boughs piled one upon the. other, 
with a long cord intertwined, and on this cord 
are strung numbers of the little hawk-bells then 
largely used in Indian trade for purposes of 
gift and barter. It was expected that in case 
of a night attack from savages, who might be 
willing to kill them for the sake of their stores, 
the enemy would stir the boughs and unwit- 
tingly ring the bells, thus arousing the little 
garrison. These ingenious defences were not 
put to the test, although no doubt they had a 
good moral effect in keeping the thieving 
savages at a respectful distance. 

Winter was just setting in. The waters of 
the noble bay were taking on that black and 



The Story of La Pointe 239 

sullen aspect peculiar to the season. The 
beautiful islands, later named for the Twelve 
Agioomy Apostles,^ looked gloomy indeed in 
winter ^^^^^ ^^^y^ evergreen mantles. From 
the precipitous edges of the red sandstone 
cliffs, which girt about this estuary of our great- 
est inland sea, the dense pine forests stretched 
for hundreds of miles westward and southward. 
Here and there in these gloomy depths was 
a cluster of starvehng Algonquians, or a band 
of Hurons from east of Georgian Bay, still 
trembHng from fear of a return of the Iro- 
quois, who had chased them from Canada into 
this land of swamps and tangled woods, where 
their safety lay in hiding. At wide intervals, 
uncertain trails led from village to village, and 
in places the rivers were convenient highways ; 
these narrow paths, however, beset with dan- 
ger in a thousand shapes, but emphasized the 
unspeakable terrors of the wilderness. 

Radisson and Groseilliers, true coureurs de 
bois, were undaunted by the dangers which 
daily beset them. Securely hiding their goods 
in skilful caches, they passed the winter with 
their Huron and Algonquian neighbors upon a 
prolonged hunt, far into the Mille Lacs region 

1 Apparently by Jonathan Carver, in the map accompany- 
ing his volume of Travels. 



240 Essays in Western History 

of Minnesota. The season was phenomenally 
severe, and the Indians could not find game 
enough to sustain life. A famine ensued in the 
camp, the tragical details of which are vividly- 
painted by Radisson. In the spring of 1662, 
the traders were back again at Chequamegon, 
and built another fortified shelter, this time 
possibly on the sand-spit of Shagawaumikong,^ 

1 Says Warren {Minn. Hist. Colls., v., p. 102) : " Shag-a- 
waum-ik-ong is a narrow neck or point of land about four 
miles long, and lying nearly parallel to the island of La 
Pointe, toward the western end of which it converges, till the 
distance from point to point is not more than two miles." In 
first entering the bay, the previous autumn, Radisson describes 
Shagawaumikong, and adds : " That point should be very fitt 
to build & advantageous for the building of a fort, as we did 
the spring following." But later on in his journal, in describ- 
ing the return to the bay from their winter with the Sioux of 
the Mille Lacs, he does not mention the exact location of the 
new " fort." While here, they " received [news] that the 
Octanaks [Ottawas] [had] built a fort on the point that forms 
that Bay, w'^*^ resembles a small lake. We went towards it 
with all speede," — and had a perilous trip thither, across 
thin ice. This would indicate that the French camp was not 
on the point. As with many other passages in the journal, 
it is impossible to reconcile these two statements. Verwyst 
thinks that the traders were stationed on Houghton Point. 

Warren, who had an intimate acquaintance with Chippewa 
traditions, believed that that tribe, driven westward by degrees 
from the shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, reached Lake 
Superior about the time of the Columbian discovery, and 
came to a stand on Shagawaumikong Point. "On this spot 
they remained not long, for they were harassed daily by their 



The Story of La Pointe 241 

from which place they once more wandered in 
search of adventures and peltries, going as far 
northwest as Lake Assiniboin, and later in the 
season returning to their home on the Lower 
St. Lawrence. 

Returning to Montreal in August (1660), 

the well-laden canoes of these adventurous 

fur-traders were accompanied thither 

Ingratitude ^^ ^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^ Hurous from the 

Lac Courte Oreille country, which lies just 
over the Lake Superior watershed several days 
to the south of Chequamegon Bay. Radisson 
and Groseilliers were obliged to suffer the con- 
fiscation of the greater part of their valuable 

warlike foes, and for greater security they were obliged to 

move their camp to the adjacent island of Mon-ing-wun-a- 

kauning [" place of the golden-breasted woodpecker," now 

known as La Pointe]. Here, they chose the site of their 

ancient town, and it covered a space about three miles long 

and two broad, comprising the western end of the island." 

[Minn. Hist. Colls., v., p. 96-) They remained in this large 

town " for the space of three generations, or one hundred 

and twenty years," but for various reasons evacuated the 

place, and settling on the adjacent mainland came to regard 

La Pointe Island' (now Madelaine) as an abode of evil spirits, 

upon which, it is said, until the days of Cadotte, no Indian 

dare stay over night alone. Gradually, as the beaver grew 

more scarce, the Chippewas radiated inland ; hence at the 

time of Radisson's visit, the shores of the bay were almost 

unoccupied, save during the best fishing season, when 

Chippewas, Ottawas, Hurons, and others congregated there 

in considerable numbers. 

16 



242 Essays iii Weste^m History 

peltries, because of trading in the upper waters 
without a license, and were nearly ruined by 
this unfortunate outcome of their enterprise. 
Such ungenerous treatment of the explorers, 
who had brought tidings of a vast stretch of 
new territory, led to their desertion to the 
English and the ultimate formation of the 
Hudson's Bay Company. 

While in Montreal, the Hurons were met by 
Jesuit missionaries who persuaded them to 
Father rcqucst the presence of a " black- 
Menard gowu " in their far-away camps in the 
Wisconsin woods. Father Pierre Menard was 
assigned to the task by his superior, and 
in September returned with the tribesmen, 
accompanied by his servant and seven other 
Frenchmen. After a deplorable winter at 
Keweenaw Bay, on the south shore of Lake 
Superior, where he had been abandoned by 
his hosts, Menard started overland to find 
them. It was a toilsome journey of some two 
hundred miles to the southwest, partly by 
water, but much of it through a tangled for- 
est. While making a portage around Bill 
Cross Rapids, in the upper reaches of the Wis- 
consin River, the unfortunate priest appears 
to have lost the path and perished of exposure. 
He was never after seen by his companion. 



The Story of La Pointe 243 

It was not until August of 1665, four years 
later, that Father Claude AUouez, another 
Father Jesuit, was scnt to re-open the Lake 
Aiioucz Superior mission. He chose his site 
on the southwestern shore of Chequamegon 
Bay, possibly at the mouth of Vanderventer's 
Creek, doubtless not far from the spot on 
which Radisson's hut had been built, four 
years previously. The mission and the local- 
ity were called La Pointe du Saint Esprit^ 
which in familiar speech was soon shortened 
to La Pointe.^ 

1 Neill (in Minn. Hist. Colls., v., p. ii6) is of the opinion 
that Allouez " built a bark chapel on the shores of the bay, 
between a village of Petun Ilurons and a village composed 
of three bands of Ottawas." That Allouez was stationed 
upon the mainland, where the Indians now were, is evident 
from his description of the bay {Jesuit Relations for 1666-67, 
1., p. 273) : "It is a beautiful Bay, at the head of which is 
situated the great Village of the Savages, who there cultivate 
fields of Indian corn and lead a settled life. They number 
eight hundred men bearing arms, but are gathered from 
seven different nations, living in peace, mingled one with 
another." Verwyst, whose local knowledge is thorough, 
thinks that AUouez's mission was at the mouth of Vander- 
venter's Creek, and I have followed him in this regard. 

In christening his mission " La Pointe," Allouez had ref- 
erence, doubtless, to the neighboring sandy point of Shaga- 
waumikong, hemming in the bay on the east. In this he 
must have had a poetic interest, for tradition told him that 
it was the landfall of the Chippevvas, and the place where, 
perhaps a century before, had been fought a great battle be- 



244 Essays in Western History 

At the time of Radlsson's visit, the shores 
of Chequamegon Bay were uninhabited save 
by a few half-starved Hurons, who came peri- 
odically to fish, from the larger villages on 
inland lakes to the south. But soon thereafter 
it became the centre of a considerable Indian 
population, residents of several tribes — Chip- 
pewas, Potawatomis, Kickapoos, Sauks, and 
Foxes, native to Wisconsin, together with 
Hurons and Ottawas from the Huron coun- 
try — having been attracted thither : first, by 
the fisheries; second, by a fancied security in 

tween them and the Dakotas (or Sioux), relics of which 
were to be found in our day, in the human bones scattered 
freely through the shifting soil ; doubtless in his time, these 
were much in evidence. 

The map in the Jestdt Relations for 1670-71 (Iv., p. 94) 
styles the entire Bayfield peninsula, forming the west shore 
of the bay, '* La Pointe du St. Esprit," which of course was 
map-making from vague report. Franquelin's map of 16SS, 
more exact in every particular, places a small settlement near 
the southwestern extremity of the bay. See also Verwyst's 
Missionary Labors of Fathers Marquette, Menard, and Allouez 
(Milwaukee, 18S6), p. 183. 

In 1820, Cass and Schoolcraft visited Chequamegon Bay, 
and the latter, in his Narrative, says : " Passing this [Bad] 
river, we continued along the sandy formation to its extreme 
termination, which separates the Bay of St. Charles [Chequa- 
megon] from that remarkable group of islands called the 
Twelve Apostles by Carver. It is this sandy point which is 
called La Pointe Chagoimegon by the old French authors, a 
term now shortened to La Pointe." 



The Story of La Pointe 245 

so isolated a region against the Iroquois of 
the East and the wild Sioux of the West. 
When Allouez arrived in this polyglot village, 
the first of October, he found here Chippewas, 
Potawatomis, Kickapoos, Sauks, and Foxes, 
all of them Wisconsin tribes ; besides these 
were Hurons, Ottawas, Miamis, and Illinois — 
victims of Iroquois hate who had fled in droves 
before the westward advances of their merci- 
less tormentors. 

Despite his large congregations, Allouez 
made little headway among these people, being 
Father cousolcd for his hardships and ill- 
Marqiistte treatment by the devotion of a mere 
handful of followers. For four years did he 
labor alone in the Wisconsin wilderness, hop- 
ing against hope, varying the monotony of 
his dreary task by occasional canoe voyages 
to Quebec, to report progress to his father 
superior. Father Jacques Marquette, a more 
youthful zealot, was at last sent to relieve him, 
and in September, 1669, arrived at La Pointe 
from Sault Ste. Marie, after spending a full 
month upon the journey — so hampered was 
he, at that early season, by snow and ice. 
Allouez, thus relieved from a work that had 
doubtless palled upon him, upon invitation of 
the Potawatomis proceeded to Green Bay, 



246 Essays in Western History 

where he arrived early in December, and 
founded the second Jesuit mission in Wis- 
consin, St. Francis Xavier, on the site of the 
modern town of De Perc.^ 

Marquette had succeeded to an uncomfort- 
able berth. Despite his strenuous efforts as 
a peacemaker, his dusky parishioners soon un- 
wisely quarrelled with their western neighbors, 
the Sioux,^ with the result that the La Pointe 
bands, and Marquette with them, retreated 
eastward along the southern shore of the great 
lake : the Ottawas taking up their home in the 
Manitouhn Islands of Lake Huron, and the 
Hurons accompanying Marquette to the Island 

1 By this time, fear of the Iroquois had subsided and 
many Hurons had lately returned with the Potawatomis, 
Sauks, and Foxes, to the old haunts of the latter, on Fox 
River. Cadillac, writing in 1703 from Detroit, says [Margry, 
v., p. 317) : "It is proper that you should be informed that 
more than fifty years since [about 1645] the Iroquois by 
force of arms drove away nearly all of the other Indian 
nations from this region [Lake Huron] to the extremity of 
Lake Superior, a country north of this post, and fright- 
fully barren and inhospitable. About thirty-two years ago 
[1671] these exiled tribes collected themselves together at 
Michillimakinak." 

2 ** The cause of the perpetual war, carried on between 
these two nations, is this, that both claim, as their exclusive 
hunting-ground, the tract of country which lies between them, 
and uniformly attack each other when they meet upon it." — 
Henry's Travels and Adventures (N. Y., 1809), pp. 197, 198. 



The Story of La Pointe 247 

of Mackinac, where the Jesuits had recently es- 
tabhshed the mission of St. Ignace. 

With La Pointe mission abandoned, and Lake 
Superior closed to French enterprise by the 
" raging Sioux," the mission at De Pere now 
became the centre of Jesuit operations in Wis- 
consin ; and it was a hundred and sixty-four 
years later (1835) before mass was again said 
upon the forest-fringed shores of Chequamegon 

Bay. 

Although the missionary had deserted La 
Pointe, the fur-trader soon came to be much in 
r , ^ evidence. The spirit of Radisson and 

Lords of "^ 11' 

the fur- Groseilliers long permeated this out- 
trade of-the-way corner of the Northwest. 

We find (1673), two years after Marquette's 
expulsion, La Salle's trading agent, Sieur 
Raudin, cajoling the now relentent Sioux at 
the western end of Lake Superior. In the 
summer of 1679, that dashing coureur de bois, 
Daniel Graysolon du Luth,i ascended the St. 
Louis River, which divides Wisconsin and Min- 
nesota, and penetrated with his lively crew 
of voyageurs to the Sandy Lake country, being 
probably the first white trader upon the head- 
waters of the Mississippi. The succeeding 
winter he spent in profitable commerce with 
1 From whom the city of Duluth, Minn., was named. 



248 Essays in Western History 

the Assiniboins, Crees, and other northern 
tribes in the neighborhood of Grand Portage, 
on the present boundary between Minnesota 
and Canada. In June, probably unaware of 
the easier portage by way of the Mille Lacs 
and Rum River, Du Luth set out at the head 
of a small company of employes to reach 
the Mississippi by a new route. Entering 
the narrow and turbulent Bois Brule, half- 
way along the southern shore of Lake Superior, 
between Red Cliff and St. Louis River, he 
with difficulty made his way over the fallen 
trees and beaver dams which then choked its 
course. From its headwaters there is a two- 
mile portage to the Upper St. Croix; this 
traversed, Du Luth was upon a romantic stream 
which swiftly carried him, through foaming 
rapids and deep, cool lakes, down into the 
Father of Waters. Here it was that he heard 
of Father Louis Hennepin's captivity among 
the Sioux, and with much address and some 
courage rescued that doughty adventurer, and 
carried him, by way of the Fox-Wisconsin 
route, in safety to Mackinac.^ 

An adventurous forest trader, named Le 
Sueur, was the next man to imprint his name 

1 See Thvvaites's edition of Hennepin's New Discovery 
(Chicago : A. C. McClurg & Co., 1903). 



The Story of La Pomte 249 

on the page of Lake Superior history. The 
Fox Indians, who controlled the valleys of the 
Fox and Wisconsin rivers, had for various 
reasons become so hostile to the French that 
those divergent streams were no longer safe 
as a gateway from the Great Lakes to the 
Great River. The tendency of the prolonged 
Fox War was to force the fur-trade travel to 
the portages of Chicago and St. Josephs on 
the south, and those of Lake Superior on the 
north.^ It was with a view to keeping open 
the Bois Brule-St. Croix route, that Le Sueur, 
who had been in the West for several years, 
was despatched by the authorities of New 
France in 1693. He built a stockaded fort 
on Madelaine Island, convenient for guarding 
the northern approach,^ and another on an 
island in the Mississippi, below the mouth 
of the St. Croix, and near the present town 

1 See Parkman's Half-Centtiry of Conflict, Hebberd's 
Wisconsin under French Dominion (Madison, 1890), and 
Wis. Hist. Colls., xvi., xvii. 

2 Neill, in Minn, Hist. Colls., v., p. 140, says that soon 
after St. Lusson's taking possession of the Northwest for 
France, at Sault Ste. Marie (1671), French traders built a 
small fort set about with cedar palisades, on which a cannon 
was mounted, "at the mouth of a small creek or pond mid- 
way between the present location of the American Fur Com- 
pany's establishment and the mission-house of the American 
Board of Foreign Missions." 



250 Essays in Western History 

of Red Wing, Minnesota. The post in the 
Mississippi soon became " the centre of com- 
merce for the Western parts." The station in 
Chequamegon Bay also soon rose to import- 
ance, for the Chippewas, who had drifted far 
inland into Wisconsin and Minnesota with the 
growing scarcity of game, — the natural result 
of the indiscriminate slaughter which the fur- 
trade encouraged, — were induced by the new 
trading facilities to return to their old haunts, 
massing themselves in an important village on 
the southwestern shore. 

This incident strikingly illustrates the impor- 
tant part which the trader early came to play 
^, ^ ^. in Indian life. At first, the tribesman 

The Indian 

and the was an agriculturist in a small way, 
trader ^^^ huntcd and fished only to meet 
the daily necessities of food and clothing. 
The white man, however, induced him to kill 
animals solely for their furs, luxuries ever in 
great demand in the marts of civilization. 
The savage now wholly devoted himself to 
the chase, and it became necessary for the 
white man to supply him with clothing, tools, 
weapons, and ornaments of European manu- 
facture, — the currency, as well as the neces- 
sities, of the wilderness.-^ These articles the 

1 Minn. Hist. Colls. ^ v., p. 125. Originally, the Indians of 
Lake Superior went to Quebec to trade ; but, as the whites 



The Story of La Pointe 251 

savage had heretofore laboriously fashioned 
for himself at great expenditure of time; but 
now he was not content with native manu- 
factures, and indeed he quickly lost his old- 
time facility for making them. Soon he was 
almost wholly dependent on the white trader 
for the commonest conveniences of life. No 
longer tied to his fields, he became more and 
more a nomad, roving restlessly to and fro in 
search of fur-bearing game, and quickly popu- 
lating or depopulating a district according to 
the conditions of trade. Without his trader, 
he quickly sank into misery and despair; with 
the advent of the trader, a certain sort of pros- 
perity once more reigned in the tepee of the 
red man. In the story of Chequamegon Bay, 
the heroes are the fur-trader and the mission- 
ary: and of these the fur-trader is the greater, 
for without his presence on this scene there 
would have been no Indians to convert. 

Although Le Sueur was not many years in 
command upon Chequamegon Bay,^ we there- 
penetrated westward by degrees, these commei-cial visits were 
restricted to Montreal, Niagara, Detroit, Mackinac, Sault 
Ste. Marie, as each in turn became the outpost of French in- 
fluence ; finally, trading-posts were opened at La Pointe, St. 
Louis River, and Pigeon River, and frequently traders even 
followed the savages" on their long hunts after the ever- 
decreasing game. 

1 In July, 1695, Chingouabc, chief of the Chippewas, 



252 Essays in Wester 7i History 

after catch frequent glimpses of stockaded fur- 
Pnr-trade trade statioiis here, — French, English, 
stockades ^^^ American, in turn, — the most 
of them doubtless being on Madelaine Island, 
which not only commands the bay but is 
easily defensible from mainland attacks.^ We 

voyaged with Le Sueur to Montreal, to "pay his respects 
to Onontio, in the name of the young warriors of Point 
Chagouamigon, and to thank him for having given them 
some Frenchmen to dwell with them ; and to testify their 
sorrow for one Jobin, a Frenchman killed at a feast. It oc- 
curred accidentally, not maliciously." In his reply (July 29), 
Governor Frontenac gave the Chippewas some good advice, 
and said that he would again send Le Sueur ** to command at 
Chagouamigon." — Minn. Hist. Colls. ^ v., p. 421. 

1 It is evident that hereafter Madelaine Island was the 
chief seat of French power in Chequamegon Bay, but it was 
not until the present century that either the name La Pointe 
or Madelaine was applied to the island. Franquelin's map 
(16S8) calls it "Isle Detour ou St. Michel." Bellin's French 
map of Lake Superior (in Charlevoix's Histoire et Descrip- 
tion GSnirale de Nouvelle France^ Paris, 1744) calls the long 
sand-point of Shagawaumikong, " Point de Chagauamigon," 
and styles the present Madelaine Island, "Isle La Ronde," 
after the trader La Ronde. What is now Basswood Island, 
he calls "Isle Michel," and at the southern extremity of the 
bay indicates that at that place was once an important Indian 
village. In De 1' Isle's map of 1745, a French trading house 
{Maison Fran^oise) is shown on Shagawaumikong Point it- 
self. Madelaine Island has at various times been known 
as Monegoinaiccauning (or moningwunakauning, Chip- 
pewa for " golden-breasted woodpecker "), St. Michel, La 
Ronde, Woodpecker, Montreal, Virginia (Schoolcraft, 1820), 
Michael's (McKenney, 1826), Middle (because midway be- 



The Story of La Pointe 253 

know that in 171 7 there was a French trader 
at La Pointe, — now the popular name for 
the entire bay district, — for he was asked by 
Lieutenant Robertel de la Noiie, who was then 
at Kaniinistiqua,^ to forward a letter to a cer- 
tain Sioux chief. In September of the follow- 
ing year, Captain Paul le Gardeur St. Pierre, 
whose mother was a daughter of Jean Nicolet, 
Wisconsin's first explorer, was sent to com- 
mand at Chequamegon, assisted by Ensign 
Linctot, the authorities of the lower country 
having been informed that the local Chippewa 
chief was, with his fellow-chief at Keweenaw, 
going to war with the Foxes. St. Pierre was 
at Chequamegon for at least a year, and was 
succeeded by Linctot, who effected an impor- 
tant peace between the Chippewas and Sioux.^ 
Whether a garrisoned stockade was main- 
tained at Chequamegon Bay, from St. Pierre's 
time to the close of the French domination, it 
is impossible to say ; but it seems probable, for 
the geographical position was one of consider- 

tween the stations of Sault Ste. Marie and Fort William, at 
Pigeon River), Cadotte's, and La Pointe (the latter, because 
La Pointe village was situated thereon). 

1 On the site of the present Fort William, Ont, near 
Thunder Bay. 

2 Wis. Hist. Colls., xvi., p. 380 ; Minn. Hist. Colls., v., pp. 
423-425. 



254 Essays in Western History 

able importance in the development of the fur- 
trade, and the few records extant mention the 
fort as one of long standing.^ 

In 1730 it is recorded that a nugget of 
copper was brought to the post by an Indian, 
A copper and search at once made for a mine. 
mtgget l3^t a year later, the authorities of 
New France wrote to the home office in Paris 
that, owing to the superstitions of the In- 
dians, which led them to conceal mineral 
wealth from the whites, no copper mine had 
thus far been found in the neighborhood of 
Chequamegon Bay. 

The commandant of Chequamegon at this 
time was Louis Denys, Sieur de la Ronde — 
Thefirsi Hkc most of his predecessors, a con- 
bark siderable trader in these far Western 

parts, and necessarily a man of enterprise 
and vigor. La Ronde, who was reported as 
** knowing the savage languages better than 
the savages, as they themselves admit," ^ was 
for many years the chief trader in the Lake 
Superior country, his son and partner being 
Denys de la Ronde. In order to search for 

1 It was during this period the only fur-trading station on 
the south shore of Lake Superior, and was admirably situ- 
ated for protecting not only the west end of the lake, but the 
Bois Brule-St. Croix trade route. 

2 Beauharnois to the French Minister, Oct. 11, 1732. 



The Story of La Pointe 255 

copper mines, as well as to conduct their grow- 
ing fur-trade, they built a bark of forty tons, 
which was without doubt '' the first vessel on 
the great lake, with sails larger than an Indian 
blanket." 1 On account of the great outlay 
incurred by him in this and other wilderness 
enterprises, the post of Chequamegon, with its 
trading monopoly, had, according to a de- 
spatch of that day, been given to the elder La 
Ronde, '' as a gratuity to defray expenses." 
Other allusions to the La Rondes are not 
infrequent: in 1736,' the son is ordered to 
investigate a report of a copper mine at Iron 
River, not far east of the Bois Brule ; in the 
spring of 1 740, the father is at Mackinac, on 
his return to Chequamegon from a visit to the 

1 James D. Butler's " Early Shipping on Lake Superior," 
in Wis. Hist. Soc. Froc, 1894, P- 87. The rigging and other 
materials were taken in canoes from the lower country to Sault 
Ste. Marie, the vessel being built at Point aux Pins, on the 
north shore, seven miles above the Sault. Butler shows that 
Alexander Henry was interested with a mining company in 
launching upon the lake in May, 1771* a sloop of 70 tons. 
After this, sailing vessels were regularly employed upon 
Superior, in the prosecution of the fur-trade and copper 
mining. The Hudson's Bay Company's " Speedwell " was 
upon the lake as early as 1789; the North West Company's 
principal vessel was the " Beaver." 

2 In this year there were reported to be 150 Chippewa 
braves living on Point Chagouamigon. — iV. Y. Colon. 
Docs.^ ix. 



256 Essays in Western History 

lower country, but being sick is obliged to re- 
turn to Montreal, where he died ; ^ and in 1744, 
Bellin's map gives to what we now know as 
Madelaine, the name '* Isle de la Ronde " — 
fair evidence that the French post of this period 
was on that island. 

We hear nothing more of importance con- 
cerning Chequamegon until about 1756, when 
Allies of Hertel de Beaubassin, the last French 
the French commandant there, was summoned to 
Lower Canada with his Chippewa allies, to do 
battle against the English.^ For several years 
past, wandering English fur-traders had been 
tampering with the powerful Chippewas of Lake 
Superior, who in consequence frequently mal- 
treated their old friends, the French; ^ but 
now that the tribe were summoned for actual 
fighting in the lower country, with extravagant 
promises of presents, booty, and scalps, they 
with other Wisconsin Lidians eagerly flocked 

1 Martin MSS., Dominion Archives, Ottawa — letter of 
Beauharnois. For much of the foregoing data, see Neill's 
" History of the Ojibways," Minn. Hist. Colls., v. 

2 N. Y. Colon. Docs,, x., p. 424. 

3 Says Governor Galissonicre, in writing to the colonial 
office at Paris, under date of October, 174S: " Voyage urs 
robbed and maltreated at Sault Ste. Marie, and elsewhere on 
Lake Superior ; in fine, there appears to be no security any- 
where." — N. V. Colon. Docs., x., p. 182. 



The Story of La Pointe 257 

under the French banner, and in painted 
swarms appeared on the banks of the St. Law- 
rence, with no better result than to embarrass 
the French commissariat and thus unwittingly 
aid the ambitious English. 

New France was tottering to her fall. The 
little garrison on Madelaine Island had, with 
A tragic many another like it, been withdrawn 
tale ixom the frontier to help in the de- 

fence of the lower country ; and the Upper 
Lakes, no longer policed by the fur-trade 
monopoly, were free plunder for the unlicensed 
coureurs de bois. Doubtless such were the 
party who encamped upon the island during 
the autumn of 1760. By the time winter 
had set in upon them, all had left for their 
wintering grounds in the forests of the far 
West and Northwest, save a clerk named 
Joseph, who remained in charge of the stores 
and the local traffic. With him were his little 
family, — his wife, who was from Montreal, his 
child, a small boy, and a man-servant, or voy- 
ageur. Traditions differ as to the cause of the 
servant's action — some have it, a desire for 
wholesale plunder; others, detection in a series 
of petty thefts, which Joseph threatened to re- 
port; others, an unrequited passion for Joseph's 
wife. However that may be, the servant mur- 
17 



258 Essays in Western His lory 

dered first the clerk, and then the wife; and 
in a few days, stung by the piteous cries of 
the child, the lad himself When the spring 
came, and the traders returned to Chequame- 
gon, they inquired for Joseph and his fam- 
ily ; but the servant's reply was unsatisfactory, 
and he finally confessed to his terrible deed. 
The story goes, that in horror the traders dis- 
mantled the old French fort as a thing accursed, 
sunk the cannon in a neighboring pool, and so 
destroyed the palisade that to-day certain mys- 
terious grassy mounds alone remain to testify 
of the tragedy. Carrying their prisoner with 
them on their return voyage to Montreal, he 
is said to have escaped to the Hurons, among 
whom he boasted of his deed, only to be killed 
as too cruel a companion even for savages.^ 

New France having now fallen, an English 
trader, Alexander Henry, spent the winter of 
Aiexajider 1 765-66 upon the mainland opposite 
Henry ^^ island.^ Hcury had obtained 

1 See the several versions of this tale, Wis. Hist. Colls., 
viii., pp. 224 et seq., and Minn. Hist. Colls., v., pp. 141-145, 431, 
432. Warren says that some Chippewa traditions ascribe 
this tragedy to the year 1722, but the weight of evidence is 
as in the text above. 

2 " My house, which stood in the bay, was sheltered by an 
island of fifteen miles in length, and between which and the 
main the channel is four miles broad. On the island theie 
was formerly a French trading-post, much frequented ; and 



The Story of La Pointe 259 

from the English commandant at Mackinac 
the exclusive trade of Lake Superior, and at 
Sault Ste. Marie took into partnership Jean 
Baptiste Cadotte,! ^ thrifty Frenchman, who 
for many years thereafter was one of the most 
prominent characters on the Upper Lakes. 
Henry and Cadotte spent several winters to- 
gether on Lake Superior, but only one upon 
the shores of Chequamegon, which Henry 
styles ''the metropolis of the Chippeways." ^ 

The next dweller at Chequamegon Bay, 
j^j^„ of whom we have record, was John 

Johnston Johnston, a Scotch-Irish fur-trader of 
some education. Johnston established himself 

in its neighborhood a large Indian village." - Henry's 
Travels p. 199. Henry doubtless means that formerly there 
was an Indian village on the island ; Warren says t^^t "n|il 
after the coming of Cadotte the island was thought by the 
natives to be bewitched. ^ , ^ ,t, 

1 Jean Baptiste Cadotte (formerly spelled Cadot) was the 
son of one Cadeau, who is said to have come to the_ North- 
west in the train of Sieur de Saint-Lusson, who m 1671 
took possession of the region centring at Sault Ste. Mane. 
Jean Baptiste, who was legally married to a Chippewa woman, 
Ld two sons, Jean Baptiste and Michel, both of whom were 
extensive traders and in their turn married Chippewas. bee 
Minn. Hist. Colls., \.,m&ex. 

2 " On my arrival at Chagouenig, I found fifty lodges of 
Indians there. These people were almost naked their trade 
having been interrupted, first by the English uwasion of 
Canada, and next by Pontiac's sy^x.^' - Travels, p. 193. 



26o Essays in Western History 

on Madelalne Island, not far from the site of 
the old French fort. Some four miles across 
the water, on the mainland to the west, near 
where is now the town of Bayfield, was a 
Chippewa village with whose inhabitants he 
engaged in traffic. Waubojeeg (White Fisher), 
a forest celebrity in his day, was at this time 
the village chief, and possessed of a comely 
daughter whom Johnston soon sought and 
obtained in marriage. Taking her to his 
island home, Johnston appears to have lived 
there for a year or two in friendly commerce 
with the natives, at last retiring to his old 
station at Sault Ste. Marie.^ 

Mention has been made of Jean Baptiste 
Cadotte, who was a partner of Alexander 
The Henry in the latter's Lake Superior 

Cadottes trade, soon after the middle of the 
century. After his venture with Henry, Ca- 

1 McKenny, in Histoiy of the Indian Tribes (Phila., 1S54), 
i., pp. 154, 155, tells the story. He speaks of Johnston as 
" the accomplished Irish gentleman who resided so many 
years at the Sault de Ste. Marie, and who was not better 
known for his intelligence and polished manners thati for his 
hospitality." Johnston died (aged sixty-six) at Sault Ste. 
Marie, September 22, 1828. His widow became a Presby- 
terian, and built a church of that denomination at the Sault. 
Her daughter married Henry B. Schoolcraft, the historian 
of the Indian tribes of the Upper Lakes. Waubojeeg died 
at an advanced age, in 1793. 



The Story of La Point e 261 

dotte, whose wife was a Chippewa, returned to 
Sault Ste. Marie, from which point he con- 
ducted an extensive trade through the North- 
west. Burdened with advancing years, Jean 
retired from the traffic in 1796 and divided the 
business between his two sons, Jean Baptiste 
and Michel. 

About the opening of the nineteenth cen- 
tury,^ Michel took up his abode on Madelaine 
Island, and from that time to the present there 
had been a continuous settlement there. He 
had been educated at Montreal, and marrying 
Equaysayway, the daughter of White Crane, 
the village chief of La Pointe,^ at once became 
a person of much importance in the Lake Su- 
perior country. Upon the old trading site at 
the southwestern corner of the island, by this 
time commonly called La Pointe, — borrowing 
the name, as we have seen, from the original La 
Pointe, on the mainland, and it in turn from 
Point Chequamegon, — Cadotte lived at his 

1 Warren thinks he settled there about 1792 [Mhm. Hist. 
Colls., v., p. Ill), but there is good evidence that it was at a 
later date. 

2 "The Cranes claim the honor of first having pitched 
their wigwam, and lighted the fire of the Ojibways, at Shaug- 
ah-waum-ik-ong, a sand point or peninsula lying two miles 
immediately opposite the Island of La Pointe." — Warren, in 
Minn. Hist. Colls. ^ v., p. 86. 



262 Essays in Western History 

ease for over a quarter of a century. Here he 
cultivated a " comfortable little farm," com- 
manded a fluctuating but often far-reaching 
fur-trade, first as agent of the North West Com- 
pany, and later of Astor's American Fur Com- 
pany, and reared a considerable family. His 
sons, educated, as he had been, at Montreal, 
became the heads of families of Creole traders, 
interpreters, and voyageurs whom antiquarians 
now confidently seek when engaged in resur- 
recting the French and Indian traditions of 
Lake Superior.^ 

1 "Kind-hearted Michel Cadotte," as Warren calls him, 
also had a trading-post at Lac Courte Oreille. Like the 
other Wisconsin Creole traders, he was in English employ 
during the War of i8 12-15, and engaged in the capture 
of Mackinac (1812). Pie died on the island, July 8, 1837, 
aged seventy-two years, and was buried there. As with 
most of his kind, he made money freely and spent it with 
prodigality, partly in high living, but mainly in supporting 
his many Indian relatives; as a consequence, he died poor, 
the usual fate of men of his type. — Miim. Hist. Colls., v., 
p. 449. Warren says {ibid., p. 11) the death occurred "in 
1S36," but the tombstone gives the above date. 

Cass, Schoolcraft, and Doty visited Chequamegon Bay in 
1820. Schoolcraft says, in his Narrative, pp. 192, 193: "Six 
miles beyond the Mauvaise is Point Che goi-me-gon, once 
the grand rendezvous of the Chippeway tribe, but now re- 
duced to a few lodges. Three miles further west is the 
island of St. Michel (Madelaine), which lies in the traverse 
across Chegoimegon Bay, where M. Cadotte has an establish- 
ment. This was formerly an important trading-post, but is 



The Story of La Pointe 263 

In the year 181 8 there came to the Lake 
Superior country two sturdy, fairly educated ^ 
The young men, natives of the Berkshire 

Warrens j^j^ig ^f Massachusctts— Lymau Mar- 
cus Warren, and his younger brother, Truman 
Abraham. They were of the purest New Eng- 
land stock, being hneally descended from 
Richard Warren, one of the " Mayflower " 
company. Engaging in the fur-trade, the 
brothers soon became popular with the Chip- 
pewas, and in 1821 still further intrenched 
themselves in the affections of the tribesmen by 
marrying the two half-breed daughters of old 
Michel Cadotte — Lyman taking unto himself 
Mary, while Charlotte became the wife of Tru- 
man. At first the Warrens worked in opposi- 
tion to the American Fur Company. But John 
Jacob Astor's lieutenants were shrewd men, 
and understood the art of overcoming com- 
mercial rivals ; Lyman was made by them a 

now dwindled to nothing. There is a dwelling of logs, 
stockaded in the usual manner of trading-houses, besides 
several outbuildings, and some land in cultivation. We 
here also found several cows and horses, which have been 
transported with great labour." 

1 Alfred Brunson, who visited Lyman Warren at I.a 
Pointe, in 1843, wrote : "' Mr. Warren had a large and select 
library, an unexpected sight in an Indian country, containing 
some books that I had never before seen." — Western 
Pioneer (Cincinnati, 1879), ^i-> P- ^^3- 



264 Essays in Western History 

partner in the lake traffic, and in 1824 estab- 
lished himself at La Pointe as the company's 
agent for the Lac Flambeau, Lac Court Oreille, 
and St. Croix departments, an arrangement 
which continued for some fourteen years. The 
year previous, the brothers had purchased the 
interests of their father-in-law, who now, much 
reduced in means, retired to private life after 
forty years' prosecution of the forest trade.^ 

The brothers Warren were the last of the 
great La Pointe fur-traders.^ Truman passed 
away early in his career, having expired in 
1825, while upon a voyage between Mackinac 
and Detroit. Lyman dwelt at La Pointe until 
1838, when his connection with the American 
Fur Company ceased ; he then received an 
appointment as United States sub-agent to 
the Chippewa reservation on Chippewa River, 
where he died on the tenth of October, 1847, 
aged fifty-three years.^ 

1 Minn. Hist. Colls., v., pp. 326, 3S3, 384, 450. Contempo- 
raneously with the settlement of the Warrens at La Pointe, 
Lieutenant Bayfield of the British navy made (1822-23) sur- 
veys from which he prepared the first accurate chart of Lake 
Superior; his name is preserved in Bayfield peninsula, 
county, and town. 

2 Borup had a trading-post on the island in 1846; but the 
forest commerce had by this time sadly dwindled. 

3 He left six children, the oldest son being William 
Whipple Warren, historian of the Chippewa tribe. See 



The Story of La Pointe 265 

Lyman Marcus Warren was a Presbyterian, 
and, although possessed of a Catholic wife. 
First Prot- was the first to invite Protestant mis- 
estant mis- sionarics to Lake Superior. Not since 
the days of AUoiiez had there been 
an ordained minister at La Pointe. Warren was 
solicitous for the spiritual welfare of his Chip- 
pewa friends, especially the young, who were 
being reared without religious instruction, and 
subject to the demoralizing influence of a rough 
element of white borderers. The Catholic 
Church was not just then ready to re-enter the 
long-neglected field ; and his predilections were 
in favor of the Protestant faith. In 1830, while 
upon his annual summer trip to Mackinac for 
supplies, he secured the co-operation of Fred- 
erick Ayer, of the Mackinac mission, who re- 
turned with him in his batteau as lay preacher 
and school-teacher, and opened at La Pointe 
what was then the only mission upon the 
shores of the great lake. In August the fol- 
lowing year, Warren brought out from Macki- 
nac Rev. Sherman Hall and wife, who served 
respectively as missionary and teacher, and 
Mrs. John Campbell, an interpreter.^ 

Williams's "Memoir of William W. Warren," in Minn. Hist. 
Colls., V, 

1 See Davidson's excellent " Missions on Chequamegon 
Bay," in Wis. Hist. Colls., xii., to which I am chiefly indebted 



266 Essays in Western History 

La Polnte Avas then upon the site of the old 
French trading-post at the southwest corner of 
Madelaine Island ; and there, on the first 
Sunday afternoon after his arrival, Mr. Hall 
preached '' the first sermon ever delivered in 
this place by a regularly ordained Christian 
minister." The missionaries appear to have 
been kindly received by the Catholic Creoles, 
several of whom were now domiciled at La 
Pointe. The school was patronized by most 
of the families upon the island, red and white, 
who had children of proper age. By the first 
of September there was an average attendance 
of twenty-five. Instruction was given almost 
wholly in the English language, with Sunday- 
school exercises for the children, and frequent 
gospel meetings for the Indian and Creole 
adults. 

We have seen that the first La Pointe village 
was at the southwestern extremity of the island. 
This was known as the " Old P'ort " site, for 
here had been the original Chippewa village, 
and later the fur-trading posts of the French and 
English. Gradually, the old harbor became 

for information concerning the modern La Pointe missions. 
Mr. Davidson has since given us, in his Unnamed Wiscon- 
sin (Milwaukee, 1895), ampler details of this interesting 
mission. 



The Story of La Poinfe 267 

shallow, because of the shifting sand, and unfit 
for the new and larger vessels which came to 
be used in the fur-trade. The American Fur 
Company therefore built a " New Fort" a few 
miles farther north, still upon the west shore 
of the island ; and to this place, the present 
village, the name La Pointe came to be trans- 
ferred. Halfway between the '' Old Fort " and 
the '' New Fort," Mr. Hall erected (probably 
in 1832) "a place of worship and teaching," 
which came to be the centre of Protestant 
missionary work in Chequamegon Bay. 

The Presbyterians and Congregationalists 
were at that time, through the American Home 
A denomu Missionary Society and the American 
natio?tai Board, respectively united in the con- 
controversy ^^^^ ^^ Wisconsin missions ; it is, 

therefore, difficult for a layman to understand 
to which denomination the institution of the 
original Protestant mission at La Pointe may 
properly be ascribed. According to Neill, 
Warren was a Presbyterian ; so also, nominally, 
were Ayer and Hall, although the last two were 
latterly rated as Congregationalists. David- 
son, a Congregational authority, says : " The 
first organization of a Congregational church 
within the present limits of Wisconsin took 
place at La Pointe in August, 1833, in con- 



268 Essays m Western History 

nection with this mission; " ^ and certainly the 
missionaries who later came to assist Hall were 
of the Congregational faith; these were Rev. 
Leonard Hemenway Wheeler and wife, Rev. 
Woodbridge L. James and wife, and Miss 
Abigail Spooner. Their work appears to 
have been as successful as such proselyting 
endeavors among our American Indians may 
hope to be, and no doubt did much to stem 
among the Wisconsin Chippewas the tide of 
demoralization which upon the free advent 
of the whites overwhelmed so many of our 
Western tribes. 

James's family did not long remain at La 

1 M^is. Hist. Colls.y xii., p. 445. Mr. Davidson writes to 
me that in his opinion Ayer leaned to independency, and was 
really a Congregationalist ; Hall is registered as such in the 
Congregational Year Book iox 1859. "As to the La Pointe 
Odanah church," continues Mr. Davidson in his personal 
letter, " its early records make no mention of lay elders — 
otScers that are indispensable to Presbyterian organization. 
In manner of organization it was independent, rather than 
strictly Congregational. This could not well be otherwise, 
with no church nearer than the one at Mackinac. That was 
Presbyterian, as was its pastor, Rev. William M. Ferry. 
The La Pointe church adopted articles of faith of its own 
choosing, instead of holdhig itself bound by the Westminster 
Confession. Moreover, the church was reorganized after the 
mission was transferred to the Presbyterian board. For this 
action there may have been some special reason that I know 
nothing about. But it seems to me a needless procedure if 
the church were Presbyterian before." 



The Stcry of La Pointe 269 

Pointe. Wheeler was soon recognized as the 
leadincf spirit there, although Hall 

An early . . 

Western did uscful service in the field of pub- 
^°°^ lication, his translation of the New 

Testament into Chippewa (completed in 1836) 
being among the earliest of Western books. 
Ayer eventually went to Minnesota. In May, 
1845, owing to the migration of the majority 
of the La Pointe Indians to the new Odanah 
Reservation, on the mainland upon the banks 
of Bad River, Wheeler removed thither and 
remained their civil as well as spiritual coun- 
sellor until October, 1866, when he retired from 
service, full of years, and conscious of a record 
of noble deeds for the uplifting of the savage. 
Hall tarried at La Pointe until 1853, when 
he was assigned to Crow Wing Reservation, 
on the Mississippi, thus ending the Protestant 
mission on Chequamegon Bay. The new 
church building, begun in 1837 near the pres- 
ent La Pointe landing, had fallen into sad decay, 
when, in July, 1892, it became the property of 
the Lake Superior Congregational Club, who 
purpose to preserve it as an historic treasure, 
considering it the first church-home of their 
denomination in Wisconsin. 

Not far from this interesting relic of Protes- 
tant pioneering at venerable La Pointe is a 



270 Essays in Western History 

rude structure dedicated to an older faith. 
Widely has it been advertised, by poets, 
romancers, and tourist agencies, as ** the iden- 
tical log structure built by Pere Marquette " ; 
while within there hangs a picture which we 
are soberly told by the cicerone was '' given 
by the Pope of that time to Marquette, for his 
mission church in the wilderness." It is strange 
how this fancy was born ; stranger still that it 
persists in living when so frequently proved 
false. It is as well established as any fact in 
Western history — by the testimony of living 
eye-witnesses, as well as by indisputable records 
— that upon July 27, 1835, ^^^ years after 
Warren had introduced Ayer to Madelaine 
Island, there arrived at the hybrid village of 
La Pointe, with but three dollars in his pocket, 
Father a wortliy Austrian priest. Father 
Baraga (aftcrwards Bishop) Frederick Baraga. 
By the side of the Indian graveyard at Middle- 
port, he at once erected " a log chapel, 50 x 
20 ft. and 18 ft. high," and therein he said mass 
on the ninth of August, one hundred and sixty- 
four years after Marquette had been driven 
from Chequamegon Bay by the onslaught of 
the Western Sioux.^ Father Baraga's resus- 

1 See Verwyst's Missionary Labors, pp. 146-149. This 
chapel was built partly of new logs, and partly of material 



The Story of La Pointe 271 

citated mission — still bearing the name La 
Pointe, as had the mainland missions of Alloiiez 
and Marquette — throve apace. His ** child- 
like simpHcity," kindly heart, and self-sacrificing 
labors in their behalf won to him the Creoles 
and the now sadly impoverished tribesmen; 
and when, in the winter of 1836-37, he was in 
Europe begging funds for the cause, his simple- 
hearted enthusiasm met with generous response 
from the faithful. 

Returning to La Pointe in 1837, he finished 
the little chapel, built log-houses for his half- 
starved parishioners, and lavished attentions 
upon them. Says Father Verwyst, himself an 
experienced missionary among the Chippewas, 
" In fact, he gave them too much altogether — 
so to say — spoiled them by excessive kind- 
ness." Four years later, his chapel being ill- 
built and now too small, he constructed a new 
one at the modern village of La Pointe, some 
of the materials of the first being used in the 
second. This is the building, blessed by Father 
Baraga on the second Sunday in August, 1841, 
which to-day is falsely shown to visitors as that 
of Father Marquette. It is needless to say 
that no part of the ancient mainland chapel of 

from an old building given to Father Baraga by the American 
Fur Company. 



272 Essays in Western History 

the Jesuits went into its construction ; as for 
the picture, a " Descent from the Cross," alleged 
to have once been in Marquette's chapel, we 
have the best of testimony that it was im- 
ported by Father Baraga himself from Europe 
in 1 841, he having obtained it there the pre- 
ceding winter, when upon a second tour to 
Rome to raise funds for the new church.-^ This 
remarkable man, promoted later to a mis- 
sionary bishopric, continued throughout his 
life to labor for the upHfting of the Indians of 
the Lake Superior country, exhibiting a self- 
sacrificing zeal which is rare in the annals of 
any church, and establishing a lasting reputa- 
tion as a student of aboriginal philology. He 
left La Pointe mission in 1853, to devote him- 
self to the Menominees, leaving his work 
among the Chippewas of Chequamegon Bay to 
be conducted by others. About the year 1877, 
the town of Bayfield, upon the mainland oppo- 
site, became the residence of the Franciscan 
friars who were now placed in charge. Thus, 

1 See Wis. Hist. Colls., xii., pp. 445, 446, w^?/.?; and Ver- 
wyst's Missionary Labors, pp. 183, 184. Father Verwyst also 
calls attention to certain vestments at La Pointe, said to be 
those of Marquette : " That is another fable which we feel it 
our duty to explode. The vestments there were procured by 
Bishop Baraga and his successors; not one of them dates 
from the seventeenth century." 



The Story of La Pointe 273 

while the Protestant mission, after a relatively 
brief career of prosperity, has long since been 
removed to Odanah, the Catholics to this day 
retain possession of their ancient field in Che- 
quamegon Bay. 

In closing, let us briefly rehearse the changes 
in the location of La Pointe, as a 

loTJtfon^^ geographical term, and thus clear our 
minds of some misconceptions into 

which several historians have fallen. 

1. As name-giver, we have Point Chequam- 
egon (or Shagawaumikong). Originally a long 
sand-spit hemming in Chequamegon Bay on 
the east, it is now an island. The most con- 
spicuous object in the local topography, it 
gave name to the district; and here, at the 
time of the Columbian discovery, was the 
Chippewa stronghold. 

2. The mission of La Pointe du St. Esprit, 
founded by Alloiiez, was, it seems well estab- 
lished on the mainland at the southwestern 
corner of the bay, somewhere between the 
present towns of Ashland and Washburn, and 
not far from the site of Radisson's fort. The 
poijit which suggested to Alloiiez the name of 
his mission was, of course, the neighboring 
Point Chequamegon. 

18 



2 74 Essays iii Western History 

3. The entire region of Chequamegon Bay 
came soon to be known as La Pointe, but early 
within the nineteenth century the name was 
again localized by being popularly attached to 
the island which had previously borne many 
names, but which to-day is officially designated 
" Madelaine." 

4. Cadotte's little trading village on the 
southwestern extremity of the island, on the 
site of the old Chippewa village and the early 
French forts, came soon especially to be desig- 
nated as La Pointe. Thus still further was 
localized this historic name, which first had 
reference to a picturesque point of land, then 
to a Jesuit mission within sight of the point, 
then to the entire environs of Chequamegon 
Bay, then to an island within the bay, and now 
to a village upon that island. 

5. When the American Fur Company estab- 
lished a new fort, a few miles north of the old, 
the oft-moved name La Pointe was transferred 
thereto. This northern village was in popular 
parlance styled '' New Fort " and the now 
almost-deserted southern village " Old Fort " ; 
while the small settlement around the Indian 
graveyard midway, where Father Baraga built 
his first chapel, was known as "Middleport." 



VI 

A DAY ON BRADDOCK'S ROAD 



VI 

A DAY ON BRADDOCK'S ROAD 

A BUSY little corner of the world is the 
Pennsylvania town of Brownsville, on the 
Monongahela. The lover of nature notes its 
Browns- existence, because beginning here 
^'^"^^ the works of man have caused the 

river to change its character. The beautiful 
Monongahela, from flowing with broad and 
placid current between steep, wooded hills, 
deep dented with ravines, — a sore temptation 
to adventurous angler and canoeist and botan- 
ist, — becomes henceforth a commercial stream, 
lined with noisy, busy, grimy, matter-of-fact 
manufacturing towns literally abutting one 
upon the other, all of the sixty miles down to 
Pittsburg, and fast defiling the once picturesque 
banks with the grewsome offal of coal mines 
and iron plants. 

To the student of Western history, however, 
Brownsville is a sort of shrine, albeit a smoky. 



278 Essays in Western History 

dusty shrine, with the smell of lubricators and 
the noise of hammers, and much talk there- 
about of the glories of Mammon. It is the 
Redstone of the eighteenth century : the centre 
of the first EngHsh settlement west of the 
AUeghanies, prominent in the annals of the 
French-English struggle for the mastery of 
the Ohio, and long the point of departure for 
expeditions down that river. It was, too, the 
terminus of one of two great pioneering paths 
across the AUeghanies, the other being Boone's 
trail through Cumberland Gap. 

Doubtless the comparative ease by which 
the AUeghanies can be crossed, between the 
waters of the Potomac at Cumberland ('* Will's 
Creek," of frontier history), and those of the 
Redstone Mouongahcla at the junction of Red- 
oid Fort stone Creek, was appreciated by the 
aborigines centuries ago : for extensive earth- 
work fortifications of the mound-building 
epoch were found by English settlers upon the 
riverside hill within the present city limits of 
Brownsville, these giving to the region its his- 
toric name, " Redstone Old Fort." It is pre- 
sumable, also, that the Indians had had, for a 
long period, a well-defined trail between Will's 
Creek and Redstone. 

In 1749, the Ohio Company was chartered by 



Braddock's Road 279 

the English crown for fur-trading in the Ohio 
valley, and built a fort and storehouse at Will's 
Creek. Nemacolin, a Delaware In- 
coiiTs dian, whose village was at Redstone, 

^''^^'' was employed to show the company's 

agent, Christopher Gist, the native route over 
the mountains ; and it was *' Nemacolin's Path " 
that was in great part followed by young 
Major Washington in 1753 in his visit to the 
French at Venango, that was improved for 
wagon traffic by Washington on his Fort Ne- 
cessity campaign the following year, and that 
was followed much of the way by Braddock in 
1755. For sixty-five years '' Nemacolin's Path " 
— later developed into " Braddock's Road " — 
was travelled as the great northern highway to 
the West, until the present National Road was 
built (1795 till about 1820) between Cumber- 
land and Brownsville. This latter closely and 
often actually follows the Braddock route from 
Cumberland until near Uniontown, whence it 
diverges westward to Brownsville — practically 
along the old Indian trail, leaving the Braddock 
Road to verge northeastward to Gist's planta- 
tion at Mount Braddock, and thence westward 
to the mouth of Turtle Creek, where is now the 
modern iron-making town of Braddock. 

It was with the view of visiting the scenes of 



28o Essays in Western History 

Washington's service along Nemacolin's Path, 
a century and a half ago, that we set out from 
Redsto7te Brownsvillc, one morning early in 
Creek May. The railway journey of some 

eighteen miles to Uniontown abounds in inter- 
est. The line makes its ascent to the foot of 
the Laurel Hills, up the rugged little valley of 
Redstone Creek, hugging the serpentine banks 
with a persistence resulting in sharp curves 
which bounce the traveller about in his seat to a 
degree more hvely than agreeable. There is a 
strange mixture upon the Redstone — dreary 
little coal-mine towns, with hillocks of shale 
sprawling over the landscape, and red-bedaubed, 
unhomelike homes of operatives; banks of 
coke ovens, hideously lurid ; soft brown fields, 
pricked with springing grain ; stretches of 
rectangular market-gardens; and pretty farm- 
steads, half hid in apple orchards, closely nes- 
tled by hillside shafts. Between jerks, you 
get charming vistas from the car-windows — 
of the swift little mountain stream flowing with 
alternating noisy cascades and placid pools be- 
tween banks in which are outcroppings of the 
reddish stone which gives name to the locality; 
of grassy slopes, spangled with trillium, violets, 
and dandelions ; of forest trees rustling into 
leaf; of the quaint log cabins of the pioneers, 



Braddock's Road 2 8 1 

now falling into decay; and of picturesque 
side ravines where disused, dilapidated water- 
wheels serve as relics of the crude milling in- 
dustries of generations gone before. 

At Uniontown, a smart, well-built little town 

of some eight thousand inhabitants, dependent 

chiefly on the coking industry, we 

The '' . 

National took Carriage for Fort Necessity, ten 
^"""^ miles distant to the southeast, on the 

National Road — locally styled "the pike." 
White, dusty, and rather stony, the old high- 
way leads straight over the foot-hills through 
the pleasant rustic suburb of Hopwood, and 
soon begins its zigzag climb over the Laurel 
Hills. The road is often carved out of the side 
of a rugged slope, and then we have below us 
sharp descents, heavily forested with chestnuts, 
maples, oaks, and lindens, already well in leaf. 
Great grapevines hang from the topmost 
boughs in rich festoons ; masses of ferns and the 
glossy may-apple are luxuriating in the moist 
depths ; flowering dogwoods lift their clusters 
of white bloom into gay relief on opposite hill 
slopes ; shining masses of the great laurel give 
an air of luxuriance to the crests of road- 
side banks, and everywhere are flitting butter- 
flies panoplied in rainbow tints, rejoicing in 
the scents and splendors of early summer. 



282 Essays in Western History 

We have also backward views of the rolling 
country from which we have risen, of the hills 
scattered about us like haycocks, their sunny 
sides checkered with rectangular fields of yel- 
low, brown, and gray, and of whitewashed 
hamlets dotting the green depths. 

At the summit of the range, where a by-road, 
to be followed later in the day, leads off north- 
ward to Jumonville's Camp and Washington's 
Springs, an enterprising farm-wife conducts a 
summer, resort, with cottages for guests who 
may, during the stifling summer days yet to 
come, desire to be up in the air, out of the 
dust of the coke ovens. A tall, angular, harsh- 
visaged woman, in a blue sunbonnet and with 
sockless feet, stood leaning over a stile hard by, 
her eyes more intent on our approach than on 
the far-stretching mountain view. 

'* We fit fire last night, on Ches'nut Ridge, 
jest over yon," she volunteered, pointing with 
her thumb to the north, where a thin bank of 
smoke hung dreamily over the dark forest 
which here mantles the hills. She had no 
knowledge of Fort Necessity by that name, 
but " 'lowed as thar was an oF fort over on 
Facenbaker's farm, yon way, up the pike." 
As to how far it was, as expressed in miles, she 
" 'lowed she could n't tell, but it was a bit 



B ruddock's Road 2S3 

furder — yon way furder, now"; and the peak 
of her sunbonnet flapped in the direction of 
the southeast, where the white Hne of turnpike 
dipped down into a little valley and ran up over 
the next hill, and then appeared to jump off 
into space. 

When we had climbed thither, there was a 
dreary little frame tavern on the top of the hill, 
with a lager-beer sign conspicuously posted, a 
watering trough, and a half-dozen farm hands 
sousing their heads at the tavern pump, pre- 
paratory to dinner. The aspect was not invit- 
ing. In further search of dinner, we descended 
into the next valley, where an old stone hos- 
telry stood by a shallow run in which hogs 
wallowed, and waddling geese craned their 
necks and hissed defiance to the new guests. 
The generous hall and dining-room, with their 
large open fireplaces and the commodious gal- 
leries, are eloquent of the old coaching days 
of the '20's and '30's, when the National Road 
from Cumberland to Redstone was the great 
trans-mountain highway, over which rolled a 
motley throng of immigrants, tourists, traders, 
and speculators, on foot, on horseback, and in 
every imaginable conveyance, bound for the 
unfolding West. 

This old stone pile, built in 1820, when 



284 Essays in Western History 

the Westering tide was at its flood, was one 
of several established along the way, every 
A coaching twenty milcs or so apart — veritable 
tavern coaching tavems, at which man and 
beast in this restless stream might obtain re- 
freshment, solid and liquid. But few of these 
coaching houses now remain ; there is one six 
miles east of Brownsville, another in Uniontown, 
and this one at Braddock's Run. No more 
are they the scenes of nightly uproar — the 
crack of drivers* whips, the shouts and impre- 
cations of a rushing throng eager to reach the 
Western goal ; to-day they are peaceful spots 
much affected by summer boarders from Pitts- 
burg and Uniontown, and existing but in the 
shadow of their old-time glory. 

Upon the banks of this noisy little run, now a 
muddy barnyard rivulet, the famous Braddock 
„., is said to have died and been interred. 

Where 

Braddock It will be remembered that the 
^^ general was mortally wounded in the 

slaughter-pen at the mouth of Turtle Creek, 
that fateful ninth of July, but was borne by his 
soldiers upon the retreat, and on the fourteenth 
died in camp. In the journal of Colonel James 
Burd, sent out through this district by Bouquet 
in 1759, to establish a base of supplies for the 
defence of the frontier, it is said that " two 



BraddocJcs Road 285 

miles from here [Fort Necessity] we found 
General Braddock's grave, about twenty yards 
from a little hollow, in which there is a small 
stream of water, and over it a bridge." This 
locahty answers fully to Burd's description, and 
just up there on the hillside, — now an open 
pasture, a few yards north of the present Na- 
tional Road, and immediately within the plainly 
marked Braddock Road, which here crosses the 
former, — is a clump of tall evergreens, sur- 
rounded by a whitewashed board fence, which 
tradition establishes as the site of Braddock's 
burial. The evidence, I think, is acceptable, 
that Braddock was buried at about this spot, 
although the measures taken by his soldiers 
to obliterate the grave against possible Indian 
desecration were so thorough that the precise 
locality can never be known. 

It quickens one's historical imagination to 
stand by Braddock's resting-place, able with 
the eye to trace plainly through the hollow 
and up over the wooded hill to the west the 
path which the English engineers hewed out 
for the intrepid general. Brave and well-mean- 
ing he certainly was, and not so bad a man as 
many have pictured, else Washington would 
never have loved him and mourned his loss. 
Braddock was but the victim of the traditions 



286 Essays in Western History 

of his school ; and that these have lasted unto 
our own day, the Boer War affords ample 
evidence. 

Two miles to the southeast, along the turn- 
pike, which follows the crest of a low-lying 
Qy^^t spur dipping towards the Youghio- 

Meadoivs gheny (pronounced Yock' -i-o-ga-ney)j 
is Geoffrey Facenbaker's farm, which includes 
Great Meadows and Fort Necessity. Descend- 
ing through a fenced cattle-way for three hun- 
dred yards, one emerges upon the meadow, 
a low, almost marshy tract of some fifty acres, 
surrounded by low, gently-sloping hills which 
once were heavily forested, but now are for the 
most part open fields. A small creek flowing 
southeasterly towards the Youghiogheny, and 
styled East Meadow Run, courses through the 
centre of the valley, and on its northern bank 
Washington built his fort. 

The first English fur-traders, in their journey 
along Nemacolin's Path, found here a springy, 
treeless basin much grown to bushes, but 
abounding in sweet grasses. They called it 
Great Meadows, in contradistinction to Little 
Meadows, a similar basin thirty-one miles to 
the east, and but twenty from Cumberland. 
In these meadows, Great and Little, they were 
accustomed in over-mountain trips to pasturing 



Braddock's Road 




288 Essays in Western History 

their horses and cattle, and Washington also 
found them serviceable in this regard, in his 
expedition of 1754. It will be remembered 
that on his way to support the Virginian occu- 
pation of the Forks of the Ohio (Pittsburg), 
he made the Great Meadows a base of opera- 
tions, although his recognition of its unfitness 
for the purpose was recognized in the name he 
gave to his stockade. 

The French had driven off the English 
fort-makers at Pittsburg, before Washington's 
Thefirst arrival. Jumonville, sent out by way 
shot Qf Redstone to watch the Virginians, 

hid in an obscure ravine a half-dozen miles to 
the northwest, and five hundred yards east of 
Nemacolin's Path, at the base of a lofty hill 
from which he had a wide view of the country. 
Washington, with his advance party, here came 
upon Jumonville, and the encounter which 
ensued led to the death of the latter and the 
opening of the French and Indian War. 

Washington, too weak to meet the avenging 
French force from Fort Duquesne, under 
Jumonville's brother, De Villiers, who 
Fort had ascended the Monongahela in 

Necessity j^Q^ts and was rapidly approaching 
up the valley of the Redstone, fell back to Fort 
Necessity, strengthened it as best he might, 



Braddock's Road 289 

and there stood siege with his half-starved 
band through that dreary third of July. In 
a rude stockade surrounded on three sides by 
hills, one of them so close that the enemy 
could approach within sixty yards under cover 
of the woods, and with the besieged crippled 
for lack of stores, the result was inevitable. 
The '' buckskin general " was obliged to capit- 
ulate, and at daybreak of the fourth marched 
out over Nemacolin's Path towards Will's Creek, 
a toilsome journey of fifty miles across the 
mountains, upon a mere apology for a road, 
the heart-sick officers and men bearing their 
burdens on their backs, and their wounded on 
stretchers. They were suffered to carry one 
swivel with them, for defence against the 
Indians who hung upon their flanks, and to 
spike the eight left behind them in the fort. 
The injury inflicted upon these latter was ap- 
parently but nominal, for the following year 
several of the guns were taken to Fort 
Cumberland. Years after this, emigrants to 
the West, following the old over-mountain 
route, discovered and used others at Great 
Meadows, and eventually these found their 
way into Kentucky, where they did service in 
the defence of savage-harassed settlers on the 
*' dark and bloody ground." 
19 



290 Essays m Western History 

It was surprising to find the remains of 
Fort Necessity so well preserved. Great 
Remains of Meadow Run, Originally a lazy, weed- 
thefort grown Stream some ten feet wide, 
has been straightened by the present proprie- 
tor into a drainage ditch, but its ancient 
windings are readily distinguishable. The 
change in the course of the run destroyed an 
outlying work, but the embankment of the 
fort itself is traceable through the greater part 
of its length. The line of earthwork is still 
some eight or ten inches above the surround- 
ing level ; while on the inner side, counting the 
excavation ditch, it has a height of about 
fifteen inches. 

The accounts of visitors to the fort dififer 
materially as to its shape. In his Journal of 
1759, Colonel Burd says, under date of Sep- 
tember 10: *' Saw Colonel Washington's fort, 
which was called Fort Necessity. It is a small, 
circular stockade, with a small house in the 
centre." In 1816 Freeman Lewis made a sur- 
vey, and declared that the embankments were 
then nearly three feet high, and had the shape 
of an obtuse-angled triangle of one hundred 
and five degrees, with the base of two hundred 
and seventy-two feet on the stream (then un- 
changed in its course), and the sides one 



Braddock's Road 291 

hundred and fifteen and ninety-nine feet 
respectively. Sparks visited the place in 1830, 
and tells us that it occupied " an irregular 
square, the dimensions of which u^ere about 
one hundred feet on each side," and his en- 
graving gives it a diamond shape. The author 
of the History of Fayette Comity (1822) thinks 
the outlines are those of a right-angled tri- 
angle. I cannot agree with any of these, for 
our measurements with compass and line gave 
us an equilateral triangle with sides of about 
a hundred and twenty feet. Of the side 
nearest the run (from northwest to southeast) 
seventy feet are now distinguishable ; upon that 
extending from the still perfect northwest cor- 
ner towards the southern angle there remains 
the upper portion, a hundred and ten feet in 
length ; the third side is broken at both ends, 
owing to the utter destruction of the southern 
and southeastern angles, but has ninety feet 
left in the curtain. There are of course no 
remaining evidences of the palisade, on top 
of the embankment, for this was at the time 
destroyed by the French, and all relics have 
long since been gathered up by curiosity- 
seekers. 

Two hawthorn-trees are growing on the 
western embankment, one of them fifty-four 



292 Essays in Western History 

inches in circumference ; and Mr. Facenbaker 
reports that some forty years ago, on coming 
into the property, he eradicated a young 
locust grove then occupying the site of the fort. 
In the centre of the fort still rests, although 
upheaved by frost, a hewn block of limestone, 
two feet square, the only surviving memento 
of a movement inaugurated in 1854 — the 
centennial year — for the erection here of a 
Washington monument. This corner-stone 
was laid with much ceremonial by Fayette 
Lodge, A. Y. M., the Fourth of July of that 
year; but nothing has since been done about 
the matter, and the outlines of the fort alone 
remain as visual evidence of the momentous 
affair of the Great Meadows. Washington 
himself was conscious of the historic import- 
ance of the spot, and did his best to protect 
it from change. In 1767 he acquired claim to 
two hundred and thirty-four acres hereabout, 
including the meadow, and mentions the tract 
in his will. Sold by his executors, the site of 
Fort Necessity passed through several hands, 
but has been untouched by the plough unto this 
day; although thousands of crayfish, piling up 
little mounds of clay, are just now doing their 
best to disturb the surface. 

Leaving Great Meadows, with its sloping 



B ruddock's Road 293 

brown sides being ploughed and harrowed for 
field crops, we ascended to the turnpike once 
Jumoti- more, through the cattle-way, and 
viiie's an hour later were back at Summit 

'^"^^ House, turning off to the northeast on 

the by-road towards Jumonville's Camp. It is 
the roughest sort of mountain road, the hubs 
of the carriage one moment bumping trees and 
stumps, and the other wallowing in deep ruts 
which are still filled with the residuum of yes- 
terday's rain. Up and down steep grades, 
swishing around sharp curves, rattling over 
stony hillsides, toiling laboriously through 
alternate beds of sand and clay, we reach an 
understanding of what Braddock's Road must 
have been before the turnpike came. In three 
miles we pass Washington's Springs, a roman- 
tic glen where the Virginia major is supposed 
to have camped the night before he met Ju- 
monville. There is, in this isolated spot, a 
small summer hotel with an outlying cottage 
or two. As we passed, a tall mountaineer and 
his women-folk were busied in whitewashing 
and repapering the establishment in prepara- 
tion for the " season," soon to open. 

A half mile or so farther, we found the rocky 
hillside hollow in which Jumonville made his 
camp, and where was fired the first shot in the 



294 Essays in Western History 

final struggle between French and English for 
the control of the continent. The sides are 
now hung thick with laurel, and great beds of 
ferns carpet the ground ; while all about, the 
dark mountain forest is perhaps quite as 
tangled and dreary as it was in Washington's 
day. Towering aloft, a steep climb, is the hill 
which was Jumonville's outlook over Nema- 
colin's Path, and from which he could, himself 
unseen, readily observe the movements of the 
Virginians. Not far away, on the bank of the 
outlet of this spring, and at the foot of a huge 
boulder, is the spot styled Jumonville's Grave, 
although there is less evidence that here was 
the actual grave than there is concerning the 
identity of Braddock's resting-place. 

A half mile to the north was, the following 
year, the camp of Colonel Dunbar, in charge 
Dunbar's of Braddock's heavy reserves. It was 
Camp ^Q Dunbar's camp that the survivors 

of the ambuscade at Turtle Creek fled in terror ; 
and from here commenced that shameful retreat 
at a time when the victorious but apprehensive 
French and Indians were themselves in flight 
towards Fort Duquesne. Dunbar's Spring, in 
which Braddock's great stores of powder were 
spoiled, is still pointed out to strangers, and 
the story is told that twelve years after Brad- 



Braddock's Road 295 

dock's defeat there were still visible '' some six 
inches of black nitrous matter all over the basin 
of the spring " — the residuum of the English 
powder so freely poured into it. 

Upon a lofty elevation near Dunbar's camp, 
with its stirring memories of border warfare, 
The mean- and a half-dozcn miles east of Union- 
ingofit town, is one of the admirable soldiers* 
orphans' schools, of which there are several 
in Pennsylvania. Just as the sun was sinking, 
we emerged from the rough forest road which 
passes the eastern gate of the institution, 
and drove through the grounds as a cut-short 
to the Uniontovvn '' pike." The smartly-uni- 
formed school-lads were drawn up in platoons 
on the parade-ground, saluting the flag of the 
country for which Washington, less than a mile 
distant, virtually fired the first shot, a century 
and a half ago. That for which Washington 
stood, at Jumonville's hiding-place, was the 
guarantee to all white dwellers in North 
America of the perpetuity of free English 
institutions, as against the mediaeval despotism 
of the French dominion ; the fathers of these 
homeless boys extended the benefits of those 
institutions to the blacks within our borders, 
thus completing the task so well begun. 



VII 

EARLY LEAD MINING ON THE UPPER 
MISSISSIPPI 



VII 

EARLY LEAD MINING ON THE UPPER 
MISSISSIPPI! 

IT is not probable that the aboriginal inhabit- 
ants of the Upper Mississippi valley, aside 
from using it to ornament their pipes and other 
utensils, made any considerable use of lead 
, . . previous to the appearance among 
tiseof them of French missionaries, ex- 
^^^'^ plorers, and fur-traders. The French 

continually searched for metallic deposits, and 
questioned the Indians closely regarding their 
probable whereabouts. Although superstitious 
with regard to minerals, the latter appear to 
have early made known to the whites the veins 
of lead in the tract which now embraces the 

1 Not a formal treatise upon this interesting subject. I 
have here but thrown together in outline, as useful material 
for those who may wish to develop it, these notes on early 
lead mining in the Fever (or Galena) River region, the result 
of a somewhat protracted investigation, which, however, I 
have not had the opportunity to carry to its utmost 
possibilities. 



300 Essays in Western History 

counties of Grant, Iowa, and La Fayette, in 
Wisconsin; Jo Daviess and Carroll counties 
in Illinois ; Dubuque County, in Iowa, and 
portions of Eastern Missouri. This is one of 
the richest of lead-bearing regions, and when 
once brought to the notice of the explorers 
of New France its fame became widespread. 
The French introduced fire-arms among the 
Northwestern Indians, and induced them to 
hunt, on a large scale, fur-bearing animals; 
thus lead at once assumed a value in the eyes 
of the latter, both for use as bullets in their 
own weapons, and as an article of traffic with 
the traders. 

The Wisconsin and Illinois Indians were 
visited in 1634 by Nicolet, who doubtless was 
Taught by the first to tcach them the use of lead 
-whites jj^ connection with fire-arms. Ra- 
disson and Groseilliers followed in 1658-59, 
and heard of lead mines among the Boeuf 
Sioux, apparently in the neighborhood of 
Dubuque.^ 

Jolliet and Marquette, when in 1673 return- 

ing from the Lower Mississippi, must 

traffic ht have instructed the Illinois in the use 

'"^ of fire-arms and the utility of lead — 

if, indeed, this tribe had not already had some 

1 Wis. Hist. Colls., xi., p. 93. 



Early Lead Mining 301 

traffic in the ore with wandering traders and 
courcurs de bois operating the upper waters 
of the Mississippi River or on Lake Michi- 
gan, of whose presence in the region we catch 
faint gHmpses in the earhest records of ex- 
ploration.^ 

The journals of Marquette and of La Hontan 
(1689) speak of the mineral wealth of the 
Upper Mississippi country ; but they appear 
never to have seen the mines themselves, and, 
misunderstanding their informants, concluded 
that the deposits were of gold, silver, and 
copper. Hennepin's map of 1687 ^ places a 
lead mine in the neighborhood of the present 
Galena, showing that he had definite infor- 
mation regarding it. Joutel, who was in the 
country that year, says ^ that ** travelers who 
have been at the upper part of the Mississippi 

1 " There cannot be a doubt that many of the French 
voyageurs besides M, Perrot and the Du I'Huts had explored 
a large part of the country * * * at a very early day, but of 
their adventures we have no account, because they were not 
sufficiently educated to record them. We have occasionally 
incidental allusions in public documents, in works on 
geography, and in memoirs, which prove this to have been 
the case " — Mills, Report on the Boiinda7-ics of the Province 
of Ontario (Ottawa, 1877), p. 6. 

2 Breese, F.arly Ilistoiy of Iltiiiois ; and Winchell, Geo- 
logical Survey of Minnesota, Final Report. 

3 Joutel, /<7«r//a/ (17 13). 



302 Essays in Western History 

affirm that they have found mines of very good 
lead there." 

It is alleged^ that some French traders 
stationed in the vicinity of Peoria Lake, on the 
Illinois River, purchased a quantity of lead in 
1690 from certain Indian mines on what after- 
wards came to be known as Fever or Galena 
River. 

After having made an expedition up the 
Mississippi in 1690, Nicholas Perrot, then 
PerroVs Frcuch commandaut of the West, on 
mines being presented by a Miami chief 

with a lump of lead ore, promised that 
within twenty days he would establish a post 
below the Wisconsin River.^ La Potherie 
says^ that the chief gave Perrot information 
as to the locality of the mines, and the latter 
accordingly visited them. Perrot, we are told, 
found *' the lead hard to work, because it lay 
between rocks and required blasting; it had 
very little dross, and was easily melted." His 
post, built at this time, was doubtless on the 
east side of the river, apparently opposite the 
Dubuque mines. 

1 Hunfs Merchants' Magazine, xviii., p. 285. 

2 Wis. Hist, Colls., xvi., pp. 146, 151, 157. 

3 Edition of 1753, ii., p. 251; Wis. Hist. Colls., pp. ^oi, 
33^' 



Early Lead Minhig 303 

As early as 1693 Le Sueur was commandant 
at Chequamegon Bay, and appears to have 
Le Sueur's made extended explorations through- 
operations ^^^ ^he Upper Mississippi valley, 
thereby ** acquiring renown."^ In 1695 he 
built a fort on a large island in the Missis- 
sippi River between Lake Pepin and the 
mouth of the St. Croix,^ which became for 
the French, says Charlevoix, ''the centre of 
commerce for the Western parts." While 
occupying this position, it appears that Le 
Sueur discovered " mines of lead, copper, and 
blue and green earth," ^ and went to France 
to solicit the court's permission to work them. 
After many delays, he returned in 1699, in 
D'Iberville's second expedition to Louisiana, 
which arrived at its destination in December. 
Having been commissioned by the king to 
explore and work " the mines at the source of 
the Mississippi," he had thirty miners assigned 
to him. His reporter and companion, Penicaut, 
after speaking of the rapids in the Mississippi 
at Rock Island, says : " We found both on the 
right and left bank the lead mines, called to 

1 Shea, Early Voyages tip and dawn the Mississippi 
(Albany, 1861 ), pp. 89 et seq. 

2 Neill, History of Minnesota (1882), p. 148; Tlnvaitcs, 
Story of Wisconsin (IJoston, 1890), p. 79. 

3 Wis. Il.st. Colls., xvi., p. 178. 



304 Essays in Western History 

this day the mines of Nicholas Perrot, the name 
of the discoverer. Twenty leagues [thirty-nine 
English miles, by U. S. land survey] from 
there on the right, was found the mouth of a 
large river, the Ouisconsin." ^ It v/as the 
thirteenth of August, 1700, when they arrived 
opposite Fever River, which Penlcaut calls 
" Riviere a la Mine." He reports that up this 
little river, a league and a half, there was " a 
lead mine in the prairie." Passing up the 
Mississippi, Penlcaut mentions two streams 
which correspond to the Platte and Grant 
rivers, in Wisconsin, and says that Le Sueur 
" took notice of a lead mine at which he sup- 
plied himself" — supposed to be what after- 
wards came to be known as ** Snake diggings," 
near Potosi, Wisconsin. After making note 
of the Black, Buffalo, Chippewa, and St. Croix 
rivers, in Wisconsin, Le Sueur passed the winter 
on the Blue River, in what is now Minnesota. 
He does not appear, except for his immediate 
necessities, to have utilized the lead mines he 
had discovered, and the following summer 
abandoned his post, returning to France.^ 

1 Margry, v., p. 412. 

2 In this same year (1700), Father Gravier made a trip 
down the Mississippi, and wrote : " I do not know what our 
court will decide about the Mississippi, if no silver mines 
are found, for our government does not seek land to cultivate. 



Early Lead Mining 305 

On William de I'lsle's chart of Louisiana 
(1703), in which he was assisted by the obser- 
vations of Le Sueur, the Galena lead mines are 
plainly indicated, as are also the Dubuque 
mines on the west side.^ 

September 14, 1712, Louis XIV. granted to 
Sieur Anthony Crozat, for a term of fifteen 
CrozaVs ycars, a monopoly of trade and min- 
monopoiy j^^g privileges in Louisiana. The 
mines were granted in perpetuity, subject to a 
royalty, and to forfeiture if abandoned. While 
Crozat's men found none of the precious 
metals, they appear to have discovered consid- 
erable lead deposits in what is now South- 
eastern Missouri ; ^ and no doubt the English 
traders, who seriously encroached on the 
French domain, and the wandering coureurs 
de bois, had more or less traffic with the 
Indians for ore, to meet both present needs 
and home demand. 

In 1 71 5, La Mothe Cadillac, governor of 
Louisiana, and founder of Detroit, went up to 
the Illinois country in search of reputed silver 

They care little for mines of lead, which are very abundant 
near the Illinois." — Winsor, Cartier to Frontenac (Boston, 
1894), p. 365- 

1 Neill, Minnesota, p. xlv. 

2 Wallace, Illinois and Louisiana under French Rule (Cin- 
cinnati, 1893), pp. 239, 240. 

20 



3o6 ILssays hi Western History 

mines, but carried back only lead ore '' from 
the mines which were shown him fourteen 
miles west of the river." ^ 

Crozat resigned his monopoly to John Law's 
Company of the West, chartered September 
6, 1 717; and two years later Louisiana — to 
which the Illinois country had now been at- 
tached — entered upon the brief period of 
"boom" which was inaugurated by that ill- 
timed enterprise. 

In 1 719 there arrived in the Illinois, Philippe 
Francois de Renault, newly appointed ''direc- 
^ „ tor-general of the mines of the 

nauWsdis- Royal India Company in Illinois."^ 
covertes p^^ despatched prospecting parties to 
various points on both sides of the Mississippi 
River, and during the four years which he 
spent in the district discovered lead mines on 
the Meramec River and north of what is now 
Potosi, in Missouri ; while M. de la Motte found 
paying leads on the St. Francois River, also in 
Missouri. July 21, 1722, one Le Gardeur de 
risle writes from Fort Chartres, near Kaskaskia, 

1 Winsor, Narr. and Crit. Hist, of Amer., v., p. 50. 

2 The term Illinois was then applied to a large district 
lying on the Mississippi and centring at the mouth of the 
Illinois River — practically all of the present State of that 
name, and the eastern half of Missouri and Iowa. 



Early Lead Mining 307 

that he was in command of a detachment of 
twelve soldiers to accompany M. de Renault to 
the Illinois River, to look after some alleged 
copper and coal mines, and found what he 
claimed to be silver and gold.^ No doubt these 
deposits were but lead and coal, for the French 
explorers were prone to deceive their patrons 
as to the value of their mineral discoveries. 
Charlevoix refers to alleged silver discoveries 
by Cadillac, but doubtingly. Shea says" that 
De Renault '* extracted silver from Illinois lead 
ore in 1722." Silver is certainly combined with 
the lead, in this district, but is not present in 
quantity sufficient for profitable working. In 
June, 1723, De Renault was granted a square 
league of territory in the northwestern part of 
what is now Monroe County, Illinois, and also 
a tract at Peoria containing about fourteen 
thousand acres. Upon the former grant he 
planted a small village named St. Philippe ; but 
by 1765 the place was deserted, the French 
residents having removed to the west bank of 
the Mississippi.^ 

The next reference we find to the lead mines 
is in 1743, when a M. le Guis gives an ac- 

1 E. B. Washburne's letter to Chicago Hist. Soc. 

2 In his edition of Charlevoix, vi., p. 25. 

3 E, B. Washburne's letter to Chicago Hist. Soc. 



3o8 Essays in Western History 

count ^ of the methods of *' eighteen or twenty " 
miners then operating in the Fever River re- 
Primitive gioi'i — a f^st lot, he says, every man 
viethods working for himself at surface oper- 
ations, and extracting only enough to secure 
a bare existence for the rest of the year. Le 
Guis makes the following report of wasteful 
smelting methods employed by these miners, 
which were strikingly similar to those in vogue 
among American miners of later days until the 
introduction of the Drummond blast furnace,^ 
about 1836: *' They cut down two or three big 
trees and divide them in logs five feet long; 
then they dig a small basin in the ground and 
pile three or four of these logs on top of each 
other over this basin : then they cover it with 
the same wood, and put three more logs, 
shorter than the first, on top, and one at each 
end crossways. This makes a kind of box, in 
which they put the mineral, then they pile as 
much wood as they can on top and around it. 
When this is done, they set fire to it from 
under; the logs burn up and partly melt the 
mineral. They are sometimes obliged to re- 
peat the same operation three times in order 

1 Wallace, pp. 274, 275. 

2 Invented by Robert A. Drummond, of Jo Daviess 
Comity, 111. 



Early Lead Mining 309 

to extract all the matter. This matter, falling 
into the basin, forms a lump, which they after- 
ward melt over again into bars weighing from 
sixty to eighty pounds, in order to facilitate the 
transportation to Kaskaskia. This is done with 
horses, who are quite vigorous in the country. 
One horse carries generally four or five of these 
bars. It is worthy of remark, gentlemen, that 
in spite of the bad system these men have to 
work, there has been taken out of the La Motte 
mine 2,500 of these bars in 1741, 2,228 in 1742, 
and these men work only four or five months 
in the year at most." 

Up to November 3, 1762, France held pos- 
session of both sides of the Mississippi, and 
Frayice then ccdcd the eastern half of the 
attd Spain valley to Great Britain. In the same 
year, France made a secret treaty with Spain 
by which the country west of the river was 
transferred to the latter power, which, how- 
ever, allowed six years to elapse before she 
assumed charge. 

In 1763, Francis Benton made finds of lead 
near Potosi, Missouri, and for a time had 
extensive workings there. 

The map made by Jonathan Carver, as a 
result of his extended Northwestern travels in 
1766, places 4ead mines at Blue Mounds, just 



3IO Essays m Western History 

south of the Wisconsin River. He found ore in 
the streets of " the Great Town of the Saukies," 
about the site of the present Prairie du Sac, 
and appears to have ascended the principal 
mound, which he says ** abounded in lead." ^ 

In Captain Henry Gordon's Journal, written 
the same year (1766),^ occurs the following 
passage, showing that there was at 
siderabie that time a considerable lead industry 
tndtisiry j^ progTcss among the French on the 
west side of the Mississippi : " The French 
have large boats of 20 tons, rowed with 20 
oars, which will go in seventy odd days from 
New Orleans to the IHnois. These boats go to 
the Ilinois twice a year, and are not half loaded 
on their return; was there any produce worth 
sending to market, they could carry it at no 
great expence. They, however, carry lead, the 
produce of a mine on the French side of the 
river, which yields but a small quantity, as they 
have not hands to work it. These boats, in 
times of the floods, which happen only in May 
and June, go down to New Orleans from the 
Ilinois in 14 and 1$ days." 

The first application for a concession of lead- 

1 Carver, Travels (London, 1778), pp. 47, 48. 

2 In Pownall, Topographical Description of North America 
(London, 1776). 



Early Lead Mining 311 

mine land in the valley of the Upper Missis- 
sippi was made in 1769 by Martin Miloney 
Duraide's Duralde, who signed his application 
^^«' at St. Louis, July 5, 1769. The day 

following, the grant was issued by Louis St. 
Ange de Bellerive, captain-commandant of the 
Illinois, and Joseph Labuxiere, " attorney of 
the attorney general, judge, etc., of the royal 
jurisdiction of the Illinois, for the French." 
This tract embraced land " three arpents in 
front, by the ordinary depth," ^ on Le Sueur's 
River of the Mines (Fever River), *' 160 leagues, 
more or less, above " St. Louis. From the 
tone of his petition, Duralde appears to have 
been a ne'er-do-well, and there is no record 
extant to show that he ever settled upon his 
grant or opened any mines, although the 
Spaniards confirmed all French grants. 

Captain Philip Pittman, writing in 1770 of 

1 French claims in Michigan were usually forty arpents in 
depth ; at Green Bay these claims were merely possessory, 
and allowed by the government to extend eighty arpents from 
front to rear. The old Spanish common-field lots, in and 
around St. Louis, were from one to four arpents wide on the 
river, by forty in depth. This appears to have been " the 
usual depth " of grants during this period, although in special 
cases they were much more ample. The Spanish and French 
grants in Upper Louisiana are fully discussed in Scharf's 
St. Louis, chap. xiii. The arpent is equal to about 192 feet, 
English linear measure. 



312 Essays in Western History 

Ste. Genevieve,^ which had become a notable 
market for lead, says : '' A lead mine about fif- 
A notable teen leagues distant, supplies the whole 
vtarket country with shot." It appears that 
at this time lead was, next to peltries, the most 
important and valuable export of the country, 
and served as currency. The lead trade was 
afterwards transferred to St. Louis, when that 
town began to control the commerce of the 
region.^ One of the largest lead-dealers of the 
day was Joseph A. Sire, an associate of Chou- 
teau & Sarp's fur company. Under the Spanish 
regime, which now ensued, we are told by 
Stoddard,^ a careful annalist, that lead miners 
working for themselves often took out '' thirty 
dollars per day, for weeks together." The 
traders who dealt in the material also made 
large profits, the returns being " cent per cent 
for the capital invested." * 

1 Present State of European Settlements on the Mississippi 
(London, 1770). 

2 In Og(\cw, Letters from the West (New Bedford, Mass., 
1823), p. 58, is this entry, showing that Ste. Genevieve was 
still flourishing in his time : " St. Genevieve, in particular, is 
a fine flourishing town. Here, back of the river, lead ore is 
found in great abundance, which has become a traffic of great 
profit to the inhabitants." 

3 Major Amos Stoddard, Sketches Hist, and Descrip. of 
Louisiana (Philadelphia, 1812). 

* Scharf, -5"/. Louis, p. 308 ; Mich. Pion. Colls., ix., p. 548. 
In his notes to Forman's Narrative (Cincinnati, 1888), L. C. 



Early Lead Mining 3 1 3 

Julicn Dubuque was the next character of 
note upon the scene. He was a man of re- 
Diibuque's markable energy, and influential with 
mines ^he Indians. In 1788 he obtained 

from a full council of Sauk and Fox Indians, 
held at Prairie du Chien, formal permit " to 
work lead mines tranquilly and without any 
prejudice to his labors." He had previously 
made rich discoveries of this ore on the west 
bank of the Mississippi, in the bluffs and ra- 
vines adjoining the site of the present Iowa 
town which bears his name. In the immediate 
neighborhood of his mines, if not one of them, 
was a rich lead discovered in 1780 by the squaw 
of Peosta, a Fox warrior.^ Tradition has it that 

Draper says: " About the first of June, 1790, Colonel Vigo, 
an enterprising trader of the Illinois country, consigned to 
him [Michael Lacassangue, a Louisville trader] 4,000 pounds 
of lead, brought by Major Doughty [who built the fort at 
Cincinnati] from Kaskaskia." 

In 1796, John James Dufour, afterwards founder of the 
Swiss colony at Vevay, Ind., came to America and made his 
start here by buying lead at Kaskaskia, St. Louis, etc., and 
taking it up the Ohio River to Pittsburg, where he disposed 
of the cargo at a profit. With the proceeds he bought 630 
acres of land for a vineyard, at the Big Bend of Kentucky 
River. 

1 Schoolcraft, Discovery of Sources of Mississippi River 
(Phila., 1855), pp. 174, 175. Schoolcraft visited the Dubuque 
mines in 1820, and gives an entertaining account of them and 
the native manner of working them — ibid.^ pp. 169-173. He 



314 Essays in Western History 

when Dubuque made his first location, a man 
named Du Bois was Hving at a mine on the 
eastern bank, nearly opposite — probably just 
south of the present village of Dunleith. 
Dubuque, in honor of the Spanish possessors 
of the soil, styled his diggings "The Spanish 
Mines." Undoubtedly some Spaniards had 
before his time conducted operations in the 
neighborhood, for when he went into the coun- 
try he found substantial roads built for the 
transportation of ore ; these, the Indians told 
him, had been made by Spaniards.^ Dubuque 
does not appear to have restricted himself to 
the west side of the river. It is believed that 
his prospectors and miners, who all enjoyed 
the full sympathy and confidence of the Sauks 
and Foxes, roved at will on both sides, and 
opened leads on Apple River, near the present 

places the distance below Prairie du Chien at sixty miles, and 
the extent of the tract, " seven leagues in front [along the 
Mississippi] by three in depth." See also Schoolcraft, View 
of the Lead Mines of Missouri, etc. (N. Y., 1819). 

1 In 1780, as appears from letters of Lieutenant-Governor 
Patrick Sinclair to General Frederick Haldimand ( Wis. Hist. 
Coll., xi., pp. 151, 152, 155, 156), the Sauks and Foxes, led 
by MM. Calve and Ducharme, were in active league with 
Spanish and American miners against British influences in 
the diggings. The Winnebagoes and Menominees assisted 
the British in attacking the miners, and seventeen of the 
Americans and Spaniards were taken prisoners to Mackinac. 



Early Lead Mining 3 1 5 

village of Elizabeth; and as early as 1805 even 
operated the old Buck and Hog leads on Fever 
River. 

It is fair to presume that the Indians had 
themselves crudely operated the mines fully 
Aboriginal 3. ccntury bcforc Dubuque's time. 
S7neiti>tg i3y^^ 33 ^yg have seen, this was doubt- 
less only to obtain bullets for the guns which 
they had acquired through trade with the 
French, and to furnish the fur-traders with a 
commodity quite as desirable as peltries. It 
is presumable that the French first taught the 
natives how to mine and smelt the ore. There 
is no evidence that the American aborigines 
ever practised the arts of smelting and casting, 
before the advent of the whites. The methods 
in vogue among the Indians were practically 
such as the whites are known to have employed 
in the earlier days of lead-mining, and are thus 
described by an eye-witness, writing in 1819: 
" A hole was dug in the face of a piece of 
sloping ground, about two feet deep and as 
wide at the top. This hole was shaped like a 
mill-hopper and lined with flat stones. At the 
bottom or point of the hopper, which was eight 
or nine inches square, narrow stones were laid 
across, gratewise. A trench was dug from the 
sloping ground inward to the bottom of the 



3i6 Essays i7i Western History 

hopper. This channel was a foot in width 
and height, and was filled with dry wood and 
brush. The hopper being filled with the ore 
and the fuel ignited, in a few minutes the 
molten lead fell through the stones at the bot- 
tom of the hopper, and thence was discharged 
through the trench over the earth. The fluid 
mass was then poured into an awkward mould, 
and as it cooled it was called a * plat,' weighing 
about 70 lbs., very nearly the weight of the 
* pig ' of later days." 

There is no doubt, however, that this method 
was an improvement over that in vogue among 
the savages in the time of early French domi- 
nation ; for we read that in Crozat's day the 
Indians reduced the mineral by throwing it 
on top of large fires. " Large logs would be 
placed on the ground and smaller pieces of 
wood piled around and the ore heaped on. 
The fire would be set in the evening, and in the 
morning shapeless pieces of lead would be 
found in cakes, or in small holes scratched in 
the earth under the logs ; or sometimes in 
shapeless masses. These pieces were sold to 
the traders." ^ 

We are told by another writer ^ that the 

1 Cf. Wis. Hist. Colls., ii., p. 228. 

2 Hist. Jo Daviess Co., III. (Chicago, 187S), p. 836. 



Early Lead Mining 3 1 7 

Indians as a rule but only skimmed the sur- 
face; although occasionally they drifted into 
side-hills for some distance, and upon reaching 
Aboriginal '' Cap rock " would bulld a fire under 
mining j^ ^^^ \.\v^xv crack the ore by dashing 
cold water on the heated surface. In the earH- 
est times, their tools were buck-horns, many of 
which were found in abandoned drifts by the 
early white settlers ; but in Dubuque's day they 
obtained hoes, shovels, and crowbars from the 
traders to whom they sold lead. The Indians 
loaded their ore at the bottom of the shaft into 
tough deerskins, the bundle being hoisted to 
the surface or dragged up inclined planes by 
long thongs of hide.^ Many of these Indian 
leads, abandoned by the aborigines when the 
work of development became too difficult for 
their simple tools, were afterwards taken pos- 
session of by whites, with improved appliances, 
and found to be among the best in the region. 
Early writers generally agree that the Indian 
mining was almost wholly conducted by old 
men and squaws, the bucks doing the smelting. 
However this may be, it is certain that in later 
days a good many bucks worked in these prim- 
itive mines, and many of them are known to 
have assisted Dubuque. The Sauks and Foxes 

1 Hist. Grant Co, (Chicago, 1881), p. 477. 



31 8 Essays in Western History 

were the owners of the lead-mine district during 
the eighteenth century, but by the treaty of 
1804 they rehnquished their lands east of the 
Mississippi, and the gypsy Winnebagoes then 
squatted in the district; although with them 
were mingled many Sauks and Foxes who had 
married into the Winnebago tribe, in addition 
to " the British Band " of Sauks, around Rock 
Island, who were afterwards (1832) implicated 
in the Black Hawk War. 

Dubuque appears to have largely employed 
his Indian friends in prospecting for lead 
mines. When their discoveries were reported 
to him, he would send Canadians and half- 
r) A >^ .'. breeds to prove the claims and some- 

Unbiiqite s ^ 

Indian times to work them ; although in 
prospec ors ,^^^y cascs, lie was coutcut with 
proving the claim and allowing the Indians to 
work it themselves, the product being brought 
to his large trading-house on the west side of 
the river. In this manner the entire lead region 
of Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois became more 
or less occupied by Dubuque's men before any 
permanent American settlement.^ 

Conciliating the Spaniards by naming his 

1 In 1826, at Ottawa {Allenwrath diggings), two miles 
from Galena, there was found, under the ashes of a primitive 
furnace, a heavy sledge-hammer, undoubtedly left by Du- 
buque's miners. 



Early Lead Mining 3 1 9 

west-side plant ** The mines of Spain," Dubuque 
deemed it advisable to seek a formal recog- 
nition from the government of Louisiana. He 
obtained, November 10, 1796, from Baron de 
" The Carondelet, Spanish intendant and 

Mines of govemor-gencral of the province, the 

spam " , c L ^ 1 

grant of a tract seven leagues ni 
length along the west bank of the Mississippi, 
by three in depth, but with certain restric- 
tions as to trade, to be prescribed by " the 
merchant Don Andrew Todd," who had a 
monopoly of the commerce of the upper val- 
ley. Dubuque's friendship with the Indians 
and their dislike of the Spanish were a suffi- 
cient safeguard against interference from Don 
Andrew; although he appears to have met 
with no small opposition on the east side of 
the river from wandering representatives of 
the American Fur Company, whose Mackinac 
agents are said to have obtained considerable 
suppHes of lead from the crafty Foxes, and in- 
deed to have themselves smelted some ore. 

Dubuque waxed wealthy from his lead and 
peltries, which he shipped to St. Louis, making 
semi-annual trips in a pirogue. In a formal 
statement made to Major Zebulon M. Pike 
(September i, 1805),^ he claimed that his mines 

1 Pike, Expedition (Philadelphia, i8io), appendix to part i.. 
P-5. 



320 Essays m Western History 

on the west side of the Mississippi extended 
over a tract of territory " twenty-eight or 
Dubuque's twenty-seven leagues long, and from 
stateme7tt one to three broad." He said that he 
made each year from twenty to forty thousand 
pounds of lead pigs ; although it is probable 
that this was an underestimate, for evidently he 
did not view with favor this evidence of Ameri- 
can curiosity about his affairs. 

In 1800, France coerced Spain into retro- 
ceding Louisiana, and three years later sold it 
to the United States. It was, however, several 
years before Americans began operations in 
the lead region of the Upper Mississippi. 

We incidentally learn that in 181 1 George E. 
Jackson, a Missouri mxiner, had a rude log fur- 
nace on an island — now washed away — tow- 
ards the east side of the Mississippi, not far 
below Dunleith and nearly opposite the mouth 
of Catfish Creek.^ Jackson floated his lead to 
^^ . r St. Louis by flatboat, and experi- 

Upening of j • r 

American enccd much troublc with the Indians, 
regime \^^\\o had a thorough dislike for Eng- 
lishmen and Americans. The reason for their 
aversion to the Anglo-Saxon race, which with 
few exceptions has been noticeable from our 

1 Hist. La Fayette Co. (Chicago, 188 1 ), p. 394. Cf. Wis. 
Hist. Colls., vi., p. 272. 



Early Lead Mining 32 1 

earliest intercourse with the red man, is easily 
explained. The French have been more in 
sympathy with the savages, with whom their 
pioneers have readily intermarried ; they settled 
among Indians for the purposes of the fur-trade, 
and their interests were identical with those of 
the Indians, being to keep the forests intact. 
The bearing of the Anglo-Saxon towards the 
savage has ever been of a domineering char- 
acter; we are pre-eminently an agricultural 
and manufacturing people ; our plan of coloni- 
zation aims at the reduction of nature, with the 
view to making the land support a large popu- 
lation. Our aims, our methods, our manners, 
are diametrically opposed to a state of savag- 
ery. We are a covetous people, and it did not 
take long for the Indian to understand that the 
English or American borderer was the herald 
of a relentless system of conquest. In the 
presence of the Anglo-Saxon settler, there was 
no room for the Indian. 

In 1812-13, John S. Miller joined fortunes 
with Jackson, but soon afterwards they aban- 
doned their island furnace and returned down 
the river. Five years later, Miller returned 
with two companions, traded a boat-load of 
goods at Dubuque's old mines, and is sup- 
posed to have penetrated to the site of Galena 



32 2 Essays in Western History 

and spent some time in the lead region. Miller 
and Jackson again visited the place in 1823. 

The manufacture of shot near St. Louis 
dates from 1809, when J. Macklot ran his first 
cast through a tower which he had erected at 
A shot Herculaneum, thirty miles distant 

tower from St. Louis, on the Joachim River. 

Indians brought lead in small quantities in 
their canoes, but the bulk of the ore was trans- 
ported from the mines by Frenchmen. 

In the following February, Nicholas Boilvin, 
then United States agent for the Winnebagoes, 
passed through on foot from Rock Island to 
Prairie du Chien, with Indian guides who 
The Buck showed him a lead mine near Fever 
lead River — supposed to be what after- 

wards came to be known as the *' Buck lead." ^ 
In a letter to the secretary of war, dated a year 
later,2 Agent Boilvin reported that the Sauks 
and Foxes (on the eastern side of the river) 
and the lowas (on the west side) had " mostly 
abandoned the chase, except to furnish them- 
selves with meat, and turned their attention to 
the manufacture of lead, which they procure 
from a mine about sixty miles below Prairie du 
Chien," — undoubtedly the Fever River and 

1 Hist. La Fayette Co., p. 396. 

2 Wis. Hist. Colls., xi., p. 252. 



Early Lead Mijimg 323 

Dubuque diggings. He reports that in 18 10 
they manufactured four hundred thousand 
pounds of the metal, which they exchanged 
for goods, mainly with Canadian traders, who 
were continually inciting them to opposition 
against Americans. Boilvin alludes to the fact 
that the Indians found lead-mining more prof- 
itable than hunting, and that the government 
would be wise to introduce among them a 
blacksmith and improved tools. He thinks 
that by thus encouraging the Indian miners, 
" the Canadian trade would be extinguished." 

In the same year (1810) Henry Shreeve is 
said to have worked up the Mississippi as far 
as Fever River, and taken back from there to 
the towns on the lower Mississippi, a small 
cargo of Indian-smelted lead. 

Between 18 15 and 1820, Captain John Shaw 
made eight trips with a trading boat between 
St. Louis and Prairie du Chien, and several 
times visited the Fever River mines, where he 
saw the Indians smelting lead in rude furnaces. 
At one time he bought from them seventy 
tons of metal, " and still left much at the 
furnace." ^ 

Boilvin does not appear to have broken up 

^ Wis. Hist. Colls., viii., p. 250. See Shaw's personal 
narrative in ;V/., ii., pp. 197 et seq. 



324 Essays m Western History 

the French-Canadian trade in the lead district, 
for we find that up to 18 19 several American 
. traders, who attempted to go among 
Canadians the Sauk and Fox miners and run 
""^^^"^ opposition to the Canadians, had 
been killed. 

In the immediate neighborhood of where 
Galena came to be planted, there were, in 
181 5, about twenty rude Indian furnaces, the 
product being bought almost entirely by 
French-Canadian traders, who are reported to 
have rated a peck of ore as worth a peck of 
corn. The same year, a crew of American 
boatmen attempted to go up Fever River by 
water; but the Indians prevented them, fear- 
ing the cupidity of the Americans, who might 
become excited by the richness of the mines 
and attempt to dispossess the natives. 

In 1 816, Colonel George Davenport, agent 
of the American Fur Company, and engaged 
Lead a if^ trade with the Sauks and Foxes, 
currency ercctcd a trading-post on the portage 
between the Mississippi and the Fever, near 
the mouth of the latter ; but he soon after left 
and went to Rock Island, where he settled, 
Davenport is credited with shipping to St. 
Louis in 181 6, the first fiatboat cargo of lead 
ever avowedly emanating from the Fever 



Early Lead Mining 3^5 

River mines; it was used in payment for 
Indian goods. Lead in those days was, like j 
fur, quite as useful as currency in the financial 1 
operations of the Western country. 

By a treaty concluded at St. Louis August 
24, 18 16, all lands lying north of a line drawn 
due west of the southern extremity of Lake 
Michigan to the Mississippi, were granted to 
the Indians,! except a tract on the Mississippi 
River five leagues square, to be designated by 
the President. This reservation was intended 
to include the lead mines, the exact location 
of which was as yet undefined. 

In 18 19 there appears to have been a more 

1 To the Ottavvas, Chippevvas, and Potawatomis. In a let- 
ter of Governor Ninian Edwards, of Illinois, dated Belleville, 
September 13, 1827 (Washburne, Edwards Papers, pp. 304- 
306), and addressed to President Adams, it is pointed out that 
the Sauks and Foxes relinquished, by the treaty of 1804, all 
the lands between the Illinois and Wisconsin rivers ; and 
that by the treaty of 18 16 the United States gave the 
greater part of this tract, with the lead-mine reservation, to 
the three tribes named. Thus the Sauks had no share in 
this gift to the Ottawas, Chippewas, and Potawatomis; 
neither did the Winnebagoes have any claim in it, " unless 
some right has been recognized to them inadvertently by 
the United States, since 1816, of which I know nothing, but 
which if it exists, was a clear and palpable violation of the 
treaty with the Ottawas, Chippewas, and Potawatomis afore- 
said, unless their consent was previously obtained, which I 
do [not] suppose was the case." 



326 Essays in Western History 

general movement upon the lead regions. 
That year, Jesse W. Shull, Francois Bouthil- 
A general li^r, Samuel C. Muir, and A. P. Van 
jnovemefit Metre were either trading or oper- 
ating small smelters in the district, and had 
taken Fox women for wives.^ 

Colonel James Johnson of Kentucky ^ came 
to the lead mines of Fever River as early as 
1819-20, anddid some mining or smelting, and 
trading. A traveller on the Mississippi in 
1821 speaks of meeting Johnson's flatboats, 
loaded with lead.^ 

The largest discovery of lead ore up to 
Johnson's time was made in 18 19 by the Sauks 
and Foxes operating a mine about a mile 
above the site of Galena. Those Indians were 
members of a band led by " The Buck," who 
had long been encamped in the vicinity.^ It 
is thought that the lead had originally been 
worked by Dubuque's men, but that after 
Dubuque's death (18 10) the natives had 
taken possession and continued operations 
with the crude furnace plant erected by 

1 Hist. La Fayette Co., p. 400. 

2 A brother of Col. Richard M. Johnson, who was said to 
have slain Tecumseh. 

3 J. G. Soulard, in Hist. La Fayette Co., p. 402. 

4 Wis. Hist. Colls., vi., p. 281. 



Early Lead Mining 327 

the whites. It took the entire force of the 
band to raise the enormous nugget which they 
had discovered, and they were very 
enormous proud of it. The Indians expressed 
nugget ^ strong desire that the find should 
be sent as a present to their Great Father at 
Washington ; but as it was never so forwarded, 
it is presumable that the traders secured it in 
piecemeal, in the course of traffic, the rate of 
exchange still being a peck of corn for a peck 
of ore. The whites afterwards called this 
mine " Buck's lead," in honor of the chief who 
operated it ; and a neighboring lead was styled 
'' Doe's," in remembrance of the Buck's favor- 
ite squaw. The estimate was made, about 
1820, that up to that time several millions of 
pounds had been extracted from the Buck 
lead, by the Indians and Dubuque's people — 
more than afterwards taken therefrom by the 
American miners, despite the fact that it was 
one of the richest mines in the region, and 
came to be worked in a scientific manner. 

In June and July, 18 19, Major Thomas 
Forsyth, United States Indian agent for the 
Sauks and Foxes, made a voyage from St. 
Louis to the Falls of St. Anthony, and in his 
journal gives us,^ upon good authority, " the 

1 Wis. Hist. Colls., vi., p. 194. 



328 Essays in Western History 

number, situation, and quality of all the lead 
mines between Apple Creek and Prairie du 
Chien." Contractors for army and Indian 
supplies were at this time frequently passing 
the mines, on their way between St. Louis and 
Prairie du Chien, and Green Bay and Missis- 
sippi River points, and both Indian and white 
miners found ready customers for their lead. 

Congress had in 1807 reserved mineral lands 
from sale, and ordered that leases thereof 
The lease should be granted to individuals for 
syste77i terms of three and five years. But 
owing to Indian opposition and the intrigues 
of Canadians, operations under government 
leases were confined chiefly to Missouri. Else- 
where, men operated on their own account, 
and without system. The first lease in the 
Fever River country was granted January 4, 
1822, to T. D. Carneil and Benjamin John- 
son, and Messrs. Suggett & Payne, all of 
Kentucky. Lieutenant C. Burdine, U. S. A., 
was ordered to aid them in selecting a hundred 
and sixty acres each in the lead region, and 
to protect them with an armed force.^ But 
no report of the expedition, if it were ever 
undertaken, appears to have been published. 

As early as April 12 following, a lease for 

1 Hist. La Fayette Co., p. 402. 



Early L ead Mtn ing 329 

three years was granted to Colonel James 
Johnson, who had for three years operated in 
the country without license. He immediately 
took to the mines a number of workmen, in- 
cluding some negro slaves, together with a 
supply of good tools. Encamping where 
Galena now stands, and under strong military 
protection,^ Johnson began operations on the 
most extensive scale yet known in the lead 
country. At the time there were several 
French and Indian settlements on the Fever, 
the former being engaged in trade and the 
latter in mining and smelting. 

There now flocked thither a horde of 
squatters and prospectors from Missouri, Ken- 
A horde tucky, and Tennessee ; while many 
of squatters ^^^^ ^^^^ Southcm Illiuois via Fort 
Clark (Peoria) and the old Indian trail which 
was afterwards developed into a wagon road 
and styled '' Kellogg's trail." For the most 
part, the newcomers paid small attention to 
Congressional enactments. The lessees not 
being supported in their rights, protracted 
disputes ensued, many of them disastrous to 
all concerned. In 1822 there were, as we 
have seen, but four other lessees besides John- 
son ; and in 1823 but nine were added to the 

1 IVis. Hist. Colls. y vi., p. 272; viii., p. 250. 



33 o Essays in Western History 

list — among them Dr. Moses Meeker, who 
estabhshed a considerable mining colony, 
which gave great impetus to the development 
of the region.^ The unlicensed plants could, 
however, be numbered by the score. The 
leasing system was so unsatisfactory to all 
concerned, and yielded the government such 
scanty revenue, that, under act of Congress 
approved July ii, 1846, the lands were 
brought into the market and sold. 

It appears from the report of Lieutenant 
M. Thomas, U. S. A., superintendent of lead 
The great mincs, made to Congress in 1826,^ 
''boom'' |.|-j^^ there were in the Fever River 
diggings, the first of July, 1825, about a hun- 
dred persons engaged in mining; which was 
increased to four hundred and fifty-three by 
the close of August the following year. The 
agent estimates that in Missouri, at the period 
of his report, there were two thousand men thus 
engaged — " miners, teamsters, and laborers 
of every kind (including slaves)"; but some 
of these were farmers who, with their slaves, 
spent only their spare time in the mines. 

1 In Wis. Hist. Colls., vi., p. 271, Dr. Meeker gives an 
interesting statement of early affairs in the mines after his 
first visit in 1S22. Another valuable account is in Hist. Jo 
D.iviess Co., Ill; pp. 448 et seq. 

2 House Ex. Docs., 19th Cong., 2d sess., ii., No. 7. 



Early Lead Mining 331 

In 1827 the name Galena was applied to the 
largest settlement on Fever River, six miles 
from its junction with the Mississippi. ^ The 
heaviest immigration began in 1829, and from 
that time forward the history of the lead 
country is familiar. 

What had particularly assisted the later 
development of the Fever River region, after 
Spanish ^^^ Indians had been quieted, was the 
claimants fact that on the west side of the 
cjcc ec Mississippi the mines were held to be 
private property, and prospectors were warned 
off. In 1832 the United States War Depart- 
ment asserted the right of the general govern- 
ment to the tract granted by Spain to Dubuque, 
and Lieutenant Jefferson Davis was sent from 
Fort Crawford with a detail of infantry to eject 
from "the Spanish mines" all settlers claiming 
title from Spain. There was much dispute as to 
the right of the government to so act, but Con- 
gress ignored the claims of the settlers, and the 
lands being placed on the market were regu- 
larly sold. Many years after, a test case was 
decided in the United States Supreme Court; 
and the appellants — the heirs of Auguste 
Chouteau and John MuUamphy of St. Louis, 

1 The river is not now navigable, owing to heavy deposits 
of soil worked do'^n from the limestone bluffs. 



332 Essays iji Wester7i History 

who claimed to have, in 1804, purchased a cer- 
tain part of Dubuque's tract — were defeated. 
In 1833 mining began upon an extended scale 
west of the river, the Spanish and the Indian 
titles having at last been cleared. 



VIII 

THE DRAPER MANUSCRIPTS 



VIII 

THE DRAPER MANUSCRIPTS 

DURING the past decade, the Draper 
Manuscripts in the library of the 
The Wisconsin Historical Society have 

collector bccome so familiar to students of 
Western history, who have cited them on 
hundreds of their pages, that some account 
of the man who collected them, and of the 
manner in which he amassed this now cele- 
brated storehouse of historical materials, would 
seem a fitting conclusion to the present volume. 

Lyman Copeland Draper was born in the 
town of Hamburg (now Evans), Erie County, 
New York, on the fourth of September, 1815. 
His ancestors, five generations before him, 
were Puritans in Roxbury, Massachusetts ; his 
paternal grandfather was a Revolutionary 
soldier, and his maternal grandfather fell in the 
defence of Buffalo against the British in 181 3, 
while his father Luke was twice captured by 
the English during the same war. 

When Lyman was three years of age, the 



336 Essays in Western History 

family removed to Lockport, on the Erie Canal. 
Luke Draper was by turns grocer, tavern- 
keeper, and farmer, and as soon as his son 
Lyman could be of service about the house, 
the store, or the land, he was obliged to assume 
his full share of family labor. Up to the age of 
fifteen, the boy's experiences were those of the 
average village lad of the period — the almost 
continuous performance of miscellaneous duties, 
including fam.Ily shoe repairing, the gathering 
and selling of wild berries, and occasional 
"jobs" for the neighbors. One summer was 
spent in acting as a hod-carrier for a builder in 
the village, at the daily wage of twelve-and-a- 
half cents. From his fifteenth year to his 
eighteenth, he served as clerk in various village 
shops. During this time, after having ex- 
hausted the possibiHties of the village school, 
he added to that meagre curriculum the read- 
ing of what few books were obtainable by 
purchase or loan in the then frontier settle- 
ment, and thereby established a local reputa- 
tion as a youth of letters. 

The lad's taste for Revolutionary history 
A youthful was early developed. He came natu- 
passiofi j.^|iy |3y j^^ ^^ L^j^g Draper's fire- 
side, the deeds of Revolutionary heroes formed 
the chief topic of conversation. There v/ere 



The Draper Manuscripts 337 

yet living many veterans of the Continental 
Army, who were cordially welcomed to the 
hospitality of the Draper household, while the 
War of 1 8 12-15 was an event of but a few 
years previous. The boy, eagerly listening, 
became steeped in knowledge of the facts and 
traditions of Anglo-American fights and West- 
ern border forays. It was in after years im- 
possible for him to remember when he first 
became inspired with the passion for obtaining 
information as to the events in which his 
ancestors took part. 

As a boy he neglected no opportunity to 
see and talk with distinguished pioneers and 
patriots. In 1825, when but ten years of age, 
he saw La Fayette during the latter's visit to 
the United States; and in his own last days 
declared he held a vivid recollection of the 
lineaments of that distinguished friend of the 
Revolutionary cause. Lewis Cass, DeWitt 
CHnton, and other celebrities of the day, he 
also heard speak at Lockport. Visits to the 
village, on various occasions, of the then noted 
Seneca chiefs. Tommy Jimmy, Major Henry 
O'Bail, and others, were to the young enthusiast 
in border history like visitations from a realm 
of fancy. La Fayette was the subject of young 
Draper's first school composition. His first 
22 



33^ Essays in Western History 

article for the press, published in the Rochester 
Gem for April 6, 1833, was a sketch of Charles 
Carroll of Carrollton, the last of the ** signers." 
One of the first historical works he read, was 
Campbell's Annals of Tryon County ; or. 
Border Warfare of Neiv York, published in 
183 1. This and other publications of the 
time were replete with lurid accounts of bor- 
der disturbances, well calculated to fire the 
imagination of youth. 

Peter A. Remsen, a cotton factor at Mobile, 
Alabama, had married Draper's cousin (1833). 
A patron of Taking an interest in the lad, then 
leartiing eighteen years of age, he invited him 
to pass the winter at his home. While in 
Mobile, Draper chiefly occupied himself in 
collecting information regarding the career of 
the famous Creek chief, Weatherford, many 
of whose contemporaries lived in the neigh- 
borhood of the Alabama metropolis. These 
jmanuscript notes, laboriously written down 
I seventy years ago, are, like the greater portion 
I of his materials for history, still mere unused 
I literary bricks and stone. 

In 1834, during his nineteenth year. Draper 
entered the college at Granville, 

At college .^^ , . i i -i->. • t t • 

Ohio, now styled Denison University. 
Here he remained for over two years as an 



The Draper Manuscripts 339 

undergraduate. He appears to have been a 
good student, but was compelled from lack of 
money to leave before graduation. Remsen 
had now returned from the South to New York, 
and took up his new home in the neighborhood 
of Alexander, Genesee County. Draper's father 
was poor, and unable either to help his son 
towards an education or to support him in idle- 
ness ; it is probable, also, that the elder Draper 
was lacking in appreciation of Lyman's unusual 
tastes. The young man was undersized, far 
from robust, and entertained aspirations which 
appeared only to fit him for the then unprofit- 
able career of a man of letters. Remsen, sym- 
pathetic and having some means, offered him 
without cost a congenial home, and to this 
patron he again turned upon leaving Granville. 
For a time he was placed at Hudson River 
Seminary, in Stockport, his studies there being 
followed by an extended course of private 
reading, chiefly historical. 

Doddridge, Flint, Withers, and afterwards 
Hall were the early historians of the border. 
Doctors The young student of their works 
disagree found that on many essential points, 
and in most minor incidents, there were great 
discrepancies between them. It was in 1838, 



340 Essays in Western History 

when twenty-three years of age, that Draper 
conceived the idea of writing a series of biog- 
raphies of trans-Alleghany pioneers, in which 
he should aim by dint of original investigation 
to fill the gaps and correct the errors then 
marring all existing books upon this fertile 
specialty. This at once became his controlling 
ambition. He entered upon its execution with 
an enthusiasm which never lagged through a 
half-century spent in the assiduous collection 
of material for what he always deemed the 
I mission of his life ; but in the end he had only 
\ investigated and collected, and the biographies 
l^were never written. 

From the Remsen home, Draper began an 
extensive and long-continued correspondence 
„ ., with prominent pioneers all along the 
corre- Westcm frontier — with Drs. Daniel 

sfondents j^^^^^ ^^^ 3^ p^ Hildrcth, and Colonel 

John McDonald, of Ohio ; William C. Preston, 
of South Carolina; Colonel Richard M. John- 
son, Charles S. Todd, Major Bland W. Ballard, 
Dr. John Croghan, and Joseph R. Underwood, 
of Kentucky; ex-Governor David Campbell, 
of Virginia; Colonel William Martin and Hugh 
L. White, of Tennessee, and scores of others of 
almost equal renown. Correspondence of this 
character, first with the pioneers and later with 



The Draper Ma7iuscripis 341 

their descendants, he actively conducted until 
within a few days of his death. 

In 1840 he began to supplement his cor- 
respondence with personal visits to the homes 
^^j of pioneers and the descendants of 

itinerafit pioneers and Revolutionary soldiers. 
He had found that for his purpose 
the gaining of information through letters was 
slow and unsatisfactory, for in those days the 
mails were tardy, unreliable, and expensive ; 
and many of those who possessed the material 
he most sought were not adepts with the pen. 
There were then practically no railroads in 
the country which he visited, and for many 
years the eager collector of historical material 
travelled far and wide, by foot, by horseback, 
by stage, by lumber wagon, and by steamboat, 
his constant companion being a knapsack well 
laden with note-books. 

In these journeys of discovery, chiefly 
through sparsely settled regions. Draper 
Pioneer travelled, in all, over sixty thousand 
hospi- miles, meeting with hundreds of curi- 

tality ^ 

ous adventures and hairbreadth es- 
capes by means of runaway horses, frightful 
storms, swollen streams, overturned stages, 
snagged steamboats, extremities of hunger, 
and the like, yet never injured nor allowing any 



342 Essays in Western History 

untoward circumstance to thwart the particular 
mission at the time in view. 

Especially before 1 850, many of those he 
sought were far removed from taverns and 
other conveniences of civilization ; but pioneer 
hospitaHty was abundant, and a stranger at 
the hearth a welcome diversion to the dull 
routine of a frontiersman's home. The guest 
of the " interviewed," the inquisitive stranger, 
who was generally blessed with abundant 
leisure, often stopped weeks together at those 
crude homes in the New York, Ohio, Ken- 
tucky, Virginia, and Tennessee backwoods — 
long enough to extract, with the acquired skill 
of a cross-examiner, every morsel of historical 
information, every item of valuable reminis- 
cence stored in the mind of his host; while 
old diaries, letters, account-books, or other 
family documents which might cast sidelights 
on the romantic story of Western settlement, 
were deemed objects worthy of acquisition by 
exercise of the most astute diplomacy. 

It would be wearisome to give a list of those 
whom Draper visited in the course of these re- 
imfortani markablc wanderings which, with but 
interviews ^^^ lapscs, he made his chief occupa- 
tion through nearly a quarter of a century, 
and resumed at intervals for many years after. 



The Draper Manuscripts 343 

Only a few of the most notable can here be 
mentioned. Perhaps the most important in- 
terview he ever held was with Major Bland 
Ballard, of Kentucky, a famous Indian fighter 
under General George Rogers Clark in the 
latter's campaigns against the Ohio Indians. 
Other distinguished border worthies who 
heaped their treasures at Draper's feet were 
Major George M. Bedinger, prominent in Ken- 
tucky as a pioneer and Indian fighter; General 
Benjamin Whiteman, of Ohio, and Captain 
James Ward, of Kentucky, two of Kenton's 
trusted lieutenants ; and General William Hall, 
a field officer under Jackson in the Creek 
War, and afterwards Governor of Tennessee. 
Draper also met in this manner fifteen of 
George Rogers Clark's fellow-Indian cam- 
paigners and many of the associates and 
descendants of Boone, Kenton, Sumter, Sevier, 
Robertson, Pickens, Crawford, Shelby, Brady, 
Cleveland, and the Wetzels — all of these, 
names to conjure with in Western and South- 
ern history. 

He also visited and took notes among aged 
survivors of several Indian tribes — Senecas, 
Oneidas, Tuscaroras, Mohawks, Chickasaws, 
Catawbas, Wyandots, Shawnees, Delawares, 
and Potawatomis. Not the least interesting 



344 Essays in Western History 

of these were the venerable Tawanears, or 
Governor Blacksnake, one of the Seneca war 
captains at Wyoming, who served as such with 
the famous Mohawk chief, Joseph Brant, and 
the scholarly Governor William Walker, of the 
Wyandots. The descendants of Brant among 
the Canada Mohawks, among whom Draper 
visited at much length, gave him an Indian 
name signifying " The Inquirer." Draper 
once visited at the home of Andrew Jackson, 
and had a long conversation with the hero 
of New Orleans. At another time he was the 
guest of his old-time correspondent, Colonel 
Richard M. Johnson, who is thought to have 
killed Tecumseh. Once when in Kentucky, 
on a hunt for manuscripts, he saw Henry 
Clay; and in Ohio laid eyes on General 
William Henry Harrison, — but he had no 
opportunity to speak to either of these. 

The period of Draper's greatest activity in 
the matter of personal interviews was between 
Arich 1840 and 1879, although in his latter 
harvest years he also frequently resorted to 
that method of obtaining materials for history ; 
while the period of his active correspondence 
in searching for information was ended only 
by death. The result of this half-century 
of rare toil was a rich harvest of collections. 



The Draper Manuscripts 345 

Upon the shelves of the manuscript room in the 
Wisconsin Historical Library, the Draper Man- 
uscripts now fill four hundred folio volumes.-^ 
The geographical field covered, is, in the main, 
from the Hudson River to the Wabash, from 
Charleston to Louisville ; and the period, from 
the year 1742 — McDowell's fight in the Val- 
ley of Virginia — until the close of the War 
of 1812-15. Some of the material bears 
upon the trans-Mississippi region, such as 
the papers of William Clark and the jour- 
nal of Sergeant Charles Floyd (Lewis and 
Clark expedition). 

The classification is chiefly by the principal 
border heroes or pioneers concerned, for we 
have seen that Draper collected with a view 
solely to using the material for a series of 
biographies: George M. Bedinger, Daniel 
Boone, Samuel Brady, Joseph Brant, Daniel 
Brodhead, George Rogers Clark, Jonathan 
Clark, William Clark, George and WiUiam 
Croghan, Josiah Harmar, William Henry Har- 

^ In 1857, he computed that his material comprised " some 
10,000 foolscap pages of notes of the recollections of warrior- 
pioneers, either written by themselves, or taken down from 
their own lips ; and wellnigh 5,000 pages more of original 
manuscript journals, memorandum books, and old letters 
written by nearly all the leading border heroes of the West." 
It was somewhat added to in later years. 



34^ Essays in Western History 

rison, William Irvine, Simon Kenton, Robert 
Patterson, James Potter, William Preston, David 
Shepherd, Thomas Sumter, John Cleves 
Symmes, Tecumseh, and Louis Wetzel. There 
are six volumes of data relative to the Meck- 
lenburg declaration of independence; other 
volumes contain early manuscripts relative to 
Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, New 
York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, 
Tennessee, Virginia, and King's Mountain ; 
numerous volumes are wholly devoted to 
Draper's interviews with pioneers or their de- 
scendants in many parts of the border States 
and the Middle West. It should, indeed, be ex- 
plained that while this collection is rich in con- 
temporary documents, in bulk these constitute 
the lesser part of the Draper Manuscripts, for 
the old frontier heroes were neither much ad- 
dicted to the diary habit nor fond of writing 
letters. Much the larger proportion of the 
papers are the great collector's interviews and 
correspondence while seeking information, all 
of them freely interspersed and enriched with 
his critical notes. These laborious methods of 
investigation furnish an interesting and instruc- 
tive study to historical specialists. 

In 1 84 1, while in the midst of his life-long 
task, Draper drifted to Pontotoc, in Northern 



The Draper Manuscripts 347 

Mississippi, where he became part owner and 
editor of a small weekly journal, the Spirit of 
. ,,. . the Times} This venture not proving 

A Mtssts- AC 

sippi financially successful, at the end of a 

episode y^^j, j^jg partner considerately pur- 
chased his interest, giving in payment the deed 
to a tract of wild land in the neighborhood. 
There came to Pontotoc, about this time, a 
young lawyer named Charles H. Larrabee, 
afterwards a prominent citizen of Wisconsin, 
where he became a circuit judge and a con- 
gressman. Larrabee had been a student with 
Draper at Granville. The legal outlook at 
Pontotoc not being rich with promise, he 
united his fortunes with those of his college- 
mate, and together they moved upon Draper's 
tract. For about a year the young men lived 
in a floorless, windowless hut, a dozen miles from 
Pontotoc, the nearest post-ofFice, raising sweet 
potatoes and living upon fare of the crudest 
character. In the summer of 1842 Draper 
received the offer of a clerkship under a rela- 
tive who was an Erie Canal superintendent at 

1 He left Pontotoc in December, 1843. Journeying 
leisurely northward, as usual visiting pioneers on the way, 
he called in March on Andrew Jackson, at the Hermitage. 
In a letter to The Perry (N. Y.) Democrat, dated Nash- 
ville, Tenn., March 16, 1844, he describes his visit and re- 
lates his conversation with the ex-President. 



34^ Essays in Western History 

Buffalo, and retraced his steps to the North, 
leaving Larrabee in sole possession. But 
the latter soon had a call to Chicago, and fol- 
lowed his friend's example, leaving their crop 
of sweet potatoes ungarnered and their land 
at the mercy of the first squatter who chanced 
along. 

The following year, however, Draper, ill 
fitted for a clerical life, was back again in 
, Pontotoc, where he made some inter- 

iti a 

haven of esting " finds " in the chests of the 
refuge Mississippi pionccrs. In 1844, once 
more adrift in the world, he sought, as a haven 
of refuge, the Remsen household, then near 
Baltimore. The Remsens eventually moved 
to Philadelphia, whither their protege accom- 
panied them. For eight years thereafter, 
Draper's principal occupation was the prose- 
cution of his search for historical data, always 
collecting and seldom writing up any of his 
material. Conscientious, as well as ambitious 
to leave nothing to be said by later writers 
upon his topics, he declared that he was not 
willing to begin until to his own satisfaction 
he had exhausted every possibility of finding 
more. Within reasonable Hmits his attitude 
lis commendable; but as a matter of fact, 
'Draper had by this time become so imbued 



The Draper Manuscripts 349 

j with the zeal of collecting that he looked 

i upon the digestion of his material as of 

{ secondary consideration. 

During his life in Philadelphia, he added 
miscellaneous printed Americana to the objects 
^^^^^^ of his collection, and particularly old 

in his , newspaper files, for he found that 
specta y ^.j^ggg latter were, when obtainable, 
among the most valuable sources of contem- 
poraneous information on any given topic in 

ihistory. He thus gathered at the Remsen 
home a hbrary of prints which came to attract 
almost as much attention among scholars as 
had his manuscript possessions. It was a time 
when in America there were few historical 
students engaged in original research ; as a 
specialist in the trans-Alleghany field, Draper 
stood practically alone. George Bancroft, Hil- 
dreth, S. G. Drake, Parkman, Sparks, Lossing, 
and others displayed much interest in the 
Draper collections, which several of them per- 
sonally examined and publicly praised. They 
sent him encouraging letters, urging him to 
enter upon his proposed work of writing biog- 
raphies of heroes of the border. 

In 1854, Lossing went so far as to enter 
upon a literary co-partnership with Draper for 
the joint production of a series of such life his- 



350 Essays m Western History 

tories — Boone, George Rogers Clark, Sevier, 
Robertson, Brady, Kenton, Martin, Crawford, 
^ ^ ^ Whitley, the Wetzels, Harmar, St. 

Co-partner- -' 

ship with Clair, Wayne, and some others being 
tossing selected for immediate treatment, each 
work to be in several large volumes. The 
titles of the several biographies were agreed 
upon at a meeting in Madison between Lossing 
and Draper. But while as a collector Draper 
was ever in the field, eager, and abounding in 
shrewd resource, as a writer he was a procras- 
tinator, and nothing was at the time done. 
Three years later, he developed renewed in- 
terest in the plan, and sent broadcast over the 
country a circular informing the public that 
the long-promised work was at last to be per- 
formed ; and yet naught came of it. 

Nineteen years had now elapsed since Draper 
had entered upon the full tide of his career as 
a collector. Up to this time, he had made a 
collection of material perhaps in all essential 
points nearly as valuable as it was at his death. 
His accumulations in after years were chiefly 
in the direction of minor details. Much of this 
class of matter, in obtaining which he spent a 
large part of the last thirty-five years of his 
life, would be considered as unimportant by 
historical writers imbued with the modern 



The Draper Manuscripts 351 

spirit and practising modern methods. Draper, 
however, being by nature an antiquarian, con- 
sidered no circumstance regarding his heroes 
as too trivial for collection and preservation. 
His design was to be encyclopaedic ; he would 
have his biographies embrace every scrap of 
attainable information, regardless of its relative 
merit. More than once, with some sadness he 
I confessed to the present writer that he felt 
[himself quite lacking in the sense of historical 
; proportion, could not understand what men 
meant when they talked of historical perspec- 
tive, and as for generalization he abhorred it. 
;Yet his literary style was incisive, and some- 
times he shone in controversy. 

" I have wasted my life in puttering," he 
once lamented, "but I see no help for it; I 
Fearin ^^"^ writc nothing so long as I fear 
to'' go to there is a fact, no matter how small, 
^^''" as yet ungarnered." Draper not only 

feared to "go to press," but even refrained 
from writing up his notes, literally — as he 
often admitted — from an apprehension that 
the next mail might bring information which 
would necessitate a recasting of his matter. 
At the time of his contract with Lossing, he 
had completed some twenty voluminous chap- 
ters of his proposed Life of Boone — perhaps a 



352 Essays in Western History 

third of the number contemplated. It is prob- 
able that this manuscript was written before he 
came to Madison ; from its present appearance, 
it seems certain that he added nothing to it 
during the succeeding thirty-four years of his 
life. Of his other projected biographies, it 
was discovered at his death that he had written 
no more than a few skeleton chapters, here and 
there. 

In January, 1849, the Wisconsin Historical 
Society had been organized at Madison. It 
Practically ^^^ ^^ ^^^^ ^^^ ^ nominal existence, 
founds the for there was then no person at its 
Historical scrvice with the technical skill neces- 
Society gary to the advancement of an under- 
taking of this character. Larrabee, Draper's 
old friend, had drifted to Wisconsin, and was 
now a circuit judge. He was one of the 
founders of the Society. In full knowledge 
of the quality of his friend's labors, he success- 
fully urged upon his associates the importance 
of attracting such a specialist to Madison. 
About the middle of October, 1852, Draper 
arrived upon the scene. His patron Remsen 
had died the spring before, and the following 
year Draper married the widow, who was also 
his cousin. The historian was then thirty-seven 
years of age, full of vigor and push, kindly of 



The Draper Manuscripts 353 

disposition, persuasive in argument, devoted 
to his life-task of collecting, self-denying in the 
cause, and of unimpeachable character. 

The story of his really magnificent work as 
secretary and executive officer of the Wisconsin 
Historical Society is familiar to all who are in- 
timately concerned with the study of Western 
history. It has been told so often, in the pub- 
lications of that institution and elsewhere, that 
it does not here require specific treatment. 
Thirty-three years of his life were in large 
measure consecrated to the service of the 
Society. He resigned at the close of the year 
(1886, turning over to the charge of his suc- 
y:essor a reference library of national reputation ; 
[while the ten volumes of Wisconsin Historical 
Collections which he had edited, are generally 
I recognized as ranking with the best American 
*vpublications of this character. But not least 
important were his untiring labors in the face 
of sometimes bitter opposition, to secure an 
assured official support for the institution, which 
at last, after weary years of striving, he saw 
placed on a strong financial footing as the 
trustee of the State. 

Although the author of numerous pam- 
phlets, of articles in the Wisconsin Historical 
Collections^ and in encyclopaedias, of a mono- 
23 



354 Essays in Western History 

graph upon collections of autographs of the 
" Signers," and of scattering chapters of pro- 
Ki7i^s jected biographies, and the editor of 
Mountain ^ fg^ minor publications aside from 
the Collections^ Dr. Draper — the University 
of Wisconsin had thus honored him — pub- 
lished but one important historical work: 
Ki?ig's Moitntain and its Heroes (Cincinnati, 
i88i). Unfortunately for the publisher and 
author, the greater part of the edition was soon 
after its issue consumed by fire, so that few 
copies are now extant. Aside from the border 
forays of whites and Indians, the really roman- 
tic portion of the history of the Revolution in 
the South is confined to the Whig and Tory 
warfare of the Carolinas, which was first fully 
treated in Draper's volume. It was well re- 
ceived at the time ; but in later years Winsor 
and others have very properly criticised it as 
possessing the faults which were conspicuous 
in the author's methods : a desire to be en- 
cyclopaedic, and a lack of proper historical 
perspective. But even with these faults. King's 
Moimtain is, as a bulky storehouse of informa- 
tion regarding the Revolutionary War in the 
South obtained at first hand, a permanently 
valuable contribution to American historical 
literature. . - -- 



The Draper Manuscripts 355 

The reason for Dr. Draper's retirement from 
official life, at the age of seventy-one, was the 
desire at last to write the numerous biographies 
which he had projected so many years before. 
His physical vigor was waning, but his literary 
ambition was as strong as in youth. Unfortu- 
nately for himself, he had accumulated so 
vast a flood of material that at last it 

Material 

beyond his was bcyoud his control ; and although 
control ^^^^ hopeful of soon beginning in 
earnest, it was plain that he contemplated his 
task with awe. In his nearly five years of 
leisure he made no important progress. 

•' Still puttering," he often mournfully re- 
pHed, whenever the present writer inquired as 
to what he was doing. But his countenance 
would lighten with boyish glee, as he continued, 
** Well, I 'm really going to commence on 
George Rogers Clark in a few days, as soon as 
I hear from the letters I sent to Kentucky this 
morning; but I am yet in doubt whether I 
ought to have a Boston or New York publisher 
— what is your judgment? " It had ever been 
the same story— always planning, never doing. 
For his society he was one of the most prac- 
tical of men, and his persistent energy was re- 
warded by almost phenomenal success. But 
the work of the institution was pressing ; in his 



356 Essays in Wester^t History 

own enterprises he could wait — until, like the 
patient cat in the fable, he waited too long. 

On the fifteenth of August, 1 891, the doctor 
suffered a paralytic stroke, which was the be- 
ginning of the end. Nevertheless, 
when partially recovered, he bravely 
returned to his " puttering," still confident that 
his projected series of a dozen huge biogra- 
phies would yet leap from his pen when he was 
at last ready. Thus, full of hope, although phy- 
sically feeble, he toiled on until again paralysis 
laid him low. On the twenty-sixth he passed 
quietly to the hereafter, his great ambition un- 
attained, his Carcassonne unreached. Death 
had rung down the curtain on this tragedy of a 
life's desire. 

Of stature short and slight, Dr. Draper was 
a bundle of nervous activity. Almost to the last. 
The man his sevcuty-six ycars sat easily on his 
himself shoulders. Light and rapid of step, 
he was as agile as many a youth, despite the 
fact that he was seldom in perfect health. His 
delicately cut features, which exhibited great 
firmness of character and the powers of intense 
mental concentration, readily brightened with 
the most winning of smiles. By nature and 
by habit he was a recluse. His existence had 
largely been passed among his books and 



The Draper Manuscripts 357 

manuscripts ; he cared little for those social 
alliances and gatherings which delight the 
average man. Long abstention from general 
intercourse with those with whom he had no 
business to transact, made him slow to form 
new acquaintances, and wrongly gained for him 
a reputation of being unapproachable. He who 
had a legitimate errand thither, found hanging 
without the latch-string of the fire-proof library 
and working " den," which was hidden in a 
dense tangle of lilacs and crab-trees in the rear 
of the bibliophile's home. Access gained, the 
literary hermit was found to be a most amiable 
gentleman, a charming and often merry con- 
versationist ; for few kept better informed on 
current events, or had at command a richer 
fund of entertaining reminiscence. To know 
Dr. Draper was to admire him as a man of 
generous impulses, who wore his heart upon 
his sleeve, was the soul of purity and honor, 
did not understand what duplicity meant, 
loved children and flowers, and was sympa- 
thetic to a fault. 

If not a great man, this gende scholar was in 
Anemi- "^^^7 dircctious eminently useful to 
nentiy use- his generation. As the guiding spirit 
fu career ^^ ^^ histoHcal socicty which he made 
great, he was in his day incomparable; as 



358 Essays in Western History 

an editor of historical material, he did most 
excellent service ; and undoubtedly he was the 
most successful of all collectors of material for 
American border history. So jealously did he 
guard his treasures, however, that during his 
lifetime they Hterally were inaccessible to all 
save himself. Not unnaturally, from his point 
of view, he deemed this great mass of docu- 
ments and notes as his own hard-won quarry, 
the working of which was to be done in due 
time. Upon his death, however, the great col- 
lection was found to have been willed to the 
archives of the Society which he loved so well 
— so many bricks and stones for future his- 
torical architects. Coming to the society in 
a sadly chaotic condition, — for the doctor's 
private library was a realm strictly guarded 
against womankind, and his own methods were 
the reverse of orderly, — in 1892 they were 
carefully classified, mounted, and bound, thus 
making them available for all comers. 

No doubt students of Western history will 
always express regret that Draper found it im- 
Ati en- practicable to give to the world the 
during Important, many-volumed works for 
momwien ^yj^j^^]^ from hls youth he had so 
eagerly planned. For while contemporary 
documents are alike useful to all, at least he 



The Draper Manuscripts 359 

could himself have best interpreted the multi- 
tude of notes and interviews which form so 
large a proportion of his matter; the world 
has in his death lost forever a mine of informa- 
tion and a wealth of judgment on controverted 
points in Western history, which might have 
illumined his pages. But if more fruitful in 
printer's ''copy," possibly he might have been 
less persistent as a collector; and of the two 
classes of public service, if we were to choose 
between them, we must admit that the Draper 
Manuscript Collection will prove through gen- 
erations to come a far more useful and endur- 
ing monument to its founder than the shelfful 
of books which he had proposed to leave as 
his chiefest legacy. 



INDEX 



INDEX 



ABBOTT, Samuel, American 
Fur Company employee, 217. 
Alabama, manuscripts relating to, 

346. 
Alexander, Gen. Milton K., in 

Black Hawk War, 165, 166, 168- 

173, 183, 184, 189. 
Algonquian Indians, 205, 208, 239. 
Allouez, Claude, Jesuit missionary, 

209, 243-246, 265, 271, 273. 
American Fur Company, 172, 217, 

224, 227, 249, 262-264, 267, 271, 

274, 319. 324- 

— Historical Association Report, 

A inerican Historical Review, 27. 
American Home Missionary So- 
ciety, in Wisconsin, 267. 

— Mission Board, 267. 
Anderson, Lieut. Robert, in Black 

Hawk War, 145. 

Armstrong, Perry A., Sauks and 
Black Hawk War, 144. 

Ashland (Wis.), 12, 236, 273. 

Assenisipia, proposed state of, 77, 
78. 

Assiniboin Indians, 248. 

Astor, John Jacob, 224, 227, 262, 
263. 

Atkinson, Gen. Henry, commands 
troops against Black Hawk, 141- 
149, 156, 158, 164-174, 183, 184, 
190-194. 

Ayer, Frederick, Wisconsin mis- 
sionary, 265, 267, 269, 270. 

BAD AXE, battle of, 14s, 188- 
192, 197, 199. 
Bailey, Maj. David, m Black 

Hawk War, 147. 
Ballard, Maj. Bland W., Kentucky 

pioneer, 340, 343. 
Bancroft, George, commends 
Draper, 349. 



Baraga, Frederick, Catholic mis- 
sionary, 270, 274. 

Bay, Chequamegon, 209, 210; dis- 
covered, 236 ; map, 273 ; de- 
scribed, 242 ; Indians, 240, 243- 
247.259; posts at, 233, 252-256, 
266, 274 ; historic sites, 236, 273, 
274; fur-trade, 247, 250-254,259- 
264 ; Catholic mission, 245-247, 
270-273 ; Protestant mission, 265, 
270, 273 ; French commandants, 
252-254, 256, 303 ; French post 
dismantled, 258 ; Radisson and 
Groseilliers at, 234-240 ; Allouez, 
243-246, 271, 273 ; Marquette, 
245-247; Cadotte, 261-264; War- 
rens, 263-265. 

— , Georgian, 204, 206, 208, 225, 239. 

— , Green, 9, 102, 103, 233. 

— , Keweenaw (Mich.), 209, 242. 

— , St. Charles. See Chequamegon. 

— , St. James, 234. 

Bayfield, Lieutenant, 264. 

— (Wis.), 260, 264, 272. 

— peninsula (Wis.), 244. 
Beardstown (111.), 142, 144, 158. 
Beaubassin, Hertel de, French 

commandant, 256. 
Beauharnois, Charles, Marquis de, 

governor of Canada, 254, 256. 
" Beaver," Lake Superior vessel, 

255- 

Bedinger, Maj. George M., Ken- 
tacky pioneer, 343, 345. 

Bellin's map of Lake Superior, 252, 
256. 

Beloit (Wis.), 166; Free Press, 
166, 195. 

Benton, Francis, discovers lead 
mines, 309. 

— , Thomas H., proposes new ter- 
ritory, 98. 

Big Foot, Potawatomi chief, 141. 

Bill Cross Rapids (Wis.), 242. 



364 Essays in Western History 



Bismarck (N. Dak.), 96, 97. 

Black Hawk ( Makataimeshekia- 
kiak), Sauk Indian leader, birth, 
118; in War of 1812-1815, 122; 
hostile to Americans, 122-125, 
128; makes treaties, 125, 126; 
influenced by White Cloud, 127, 
129; massacres Menominees, 131, 
132; recruits forces, X34 ; invades 
Illinois, 139; attacks Stillman's 
detachment, 14S-153; harries the 
border, 159-163 ; retreats to Lake 
Koshkonong, 167-173; fliglit, 
17^^-178; attacks army, 179, iSo; 
retires, 183-186 ; sues for peace, 
187 ; taken captive, 193, 194 ; 
imprisoned, 194, 195 ; travels in 
East, 194; death, 195; charac- 
terized, 1 19-122, 196; Autobiog- 
raphy, 120, 122, 124-126, 129- 
1311 133, i34> 140, 143, i49j 153. 
178, 1S2, 1S5, igx. 

Blue Mounds (Wis.), 142, 160, 162, 
164, 183 ; mines at, 309. 

BDilvin, Nicholas, Indian agent, 
322, 32?. 

Boone, Daniel, Kentucky pioneer, 
II, 28, 343, 345, 350; Draper's 
Life,^l\, 352. 

Boone County (111-), 106. 

Boonesborough (Ky ), 10. 

Boone's road ( Ky.), 6, 278. 

Borup, , fur-trader, 264. 

Bouiiuet, Gen. Henry, in expedi- 
tion of 1758, 284. 

Bouthillier, Frangois, in lead 
mines, 326. 

Bowman, Capt. Joseph, accom- 
panies Clark, 20, 34, 38, 57,62; 
Jourjial, 47, 51, 55, 58, 6r. 

Boyd, Charles S., Illinois pioneer, 
135- 

" Boyd Papers," in Wis. Hist. 
Colls., i8i. 

Boyd's Grove (111.), 135. 

Braddock, Gen. Edward, 284, 285, 
294. 

Braddock (Pa.), 279. 

Braddock's Road, 277, 279-285, 293. 

— Run (Pa.), 284. 

Brady, Gen. Hugh, in Black 
Hawk War, 184. 

— , Samuel, Kentucky pioneer, 28, 
343i 345. 350- 

Brant, Joseph, Mohawk chief, 29, 
66, 344, 345. 

Breese, Sidney, Early History of 
Ulinoisi 301. 



Brodhead, Daniel, pioneer, 345. 

Brownsville (Pa.), 22, 277-280, 283, 
288. 

Brunson, Alfred, visits La Pointe, 
263. 

Buck, Sauk and Fo.x chief, 326, 327. 

Buckley, Cornelius, di.scusses Black 
Hawk War, 166, 195. 

Buffalo Grove (III), 142. 

Burd, Col. James, identifies Brad- 
dock's grave, 284, 285 ; Journal, 
290. 
*Burdine, Lieut. Clark, protects lead 
miners, 328. 

Burlington (la.), 195; Gazette, 196. 

Burnet, Jacob, Notes on Northwest 
Territory, 85. 

Burr Oak Grove (Wis.), 162. 

Butler, James Davie, " Early Ship- 
ping on Lake Superior," 255. 

— , Mann, History 0/ Kentucky,^!. 

Butterfield, Consul W., History 
of Nicole t, 207. 

Byron (111.), 138. 

CADEAU. See Cadotte. 
Cadillac, Antoine de La- 
mothe, Sieur de, founded of De- 
troit, 216, 246; governor of 
Louisiana, 305 ; searches for 
mines, 306, 307. 

— , Jean Baptiste, Wisconsin 
pioneer, 241, 259-261. 

— , Jean Baptiste, junior, 261. 

— , Michel, 259, 261-264, 274 ; 
daughters of, 263, 265. 

Cahokia (111.), 12-14, 34-39, 42, 46, 

65- 

Caldwell, Billy, Potawatomi chief, 
122. 

Calve, Joseph, in War of 1812-1815, 
314. 

Campbell, David, governor of Vir- 
ginia, 3.|o. 

— , Henry C, "Explorations of 
Lake Superior," 209; " Pere 
Menard," 209. _ 

— , Mrs. John, Wisconsin mission- 
ary, 265. 

— , William W., Annals of Try on 
County, N. Y., 338. 

Canada, founding of, 205 ; con- 
quest of, 218, 257, 258 ; boundary 
of, 81, S3, 204, 234; archives of, 
256. 

Carneil, T. D., in lead trade, 328. 

Carondelet, Spanish governor of 
Louisiana, 319. ' 



Index 



365 



Carroll, Charles, of CarroUton, 

signer, 338. 
Carroll County (Ill.)> 106; lead 

mines in, 300. 
Career, Jonathan, Western trav- 
eller, 239, 244; Travels, 309, 

310; map, 309. 
Cass, Lewis, at Chequamegon Bay, 

244, 262 ; at Lockport, 337. 
Cassville (Wis.), X42. 
Catawba Indians, visited by Draper, 

343. 
Cave Hill Cemetery, Louisville, 

Clark's grave in, 71. 
Chaetar, Winnebago chief, 193. 
Champlain, Samuel de, founder of 

Canada, 205, 206, 231. 
Charlevoix, Pierre Francois Xavier 

de, Histoire de Nonvelle France, 

252, 307- 
Chequamegon Pomt, 236, 240, 243, 

244, 252, 261, 262, 273. 
Chersonesus, proposed State of, 77, 

78. 
Chestnut Ridge (Pa.), 282. 
Chicago. 105, i35-i37> Mi, i93> 

228 ; Tillies^ 214. 

— Historical Society, 307. 

— & Northwestern Railway, 175. 
Chickasaw Indians, visited by 

Draper, 343. 
Chillicothe (Ohio), 66, 83-85, 88. 
Chingouabe, Chippewa chief, 251, 

252. 
Chippewa, proposed territory of, 

9S ; boundaries of, 99, 100. 

— County (Mich), 93. 

— Indians, 8, 39, 132, 204, 206, 209, 
244, 245, 250, 252, 259-262, 265, 
266, 268, 272 ; number of, 255 ; 
language, 233, 269; early history 
of, 240-243, 253, 256, 273 ; treaty 
with, 325 ; removal to Odanah, 
269. 

Chouteau, Pierre, in fur-trade, 312, 

Christino Indians. See Crees. 

Cincinnati, fort at, 313. 

Clark, Gen. George Rogers, i, 3, 6, 
17, 72, 219; early hfe, 10, 11; 
plans expedition, 17, 18; in Vir- 
ginia, 18; recruits forces, 19-25; 
Illinois march, 25-28 ; captures 
Kaskaskia, 28-32, 219; concili- 
ates habitants, 31-33 ; treats with 
Spaniards, 36-38; conciliates In- 
dians, 38-40 ; atteniiDts to capture, 
42-44; march to Vincennes, 47- 



Clark, Gen. Geo. Rogers (c(7«^V). 
54 ; letter to inhabitants, 54-56 ; 
attacks Vincennes, 57-60; cap- 
tures Vincennes, 61-63 ; re-in- 
forced, 64, 65 ; returns to Louis- 
ville, 65; expedition of 1780, 66; 
fails to capture Detroit, 66; fail- 
ure of powers, 67 ; proposed for 
Western exploration, 67, 68; 
plans filibustering expedition, 6S- 
70; Indian campaigns of, 343; 
later years, 70, 71 ; manuscripts 
concerning, 345 ; Biography oft 

350- 

Clark, Maj. Jonathan, 62, 345. 
— , William, 68; papers of, 345- 

-(111.), 142. 

Clarksville (Ind.), 70. 

Clay, Henry, Draper sees, 344- 

Cleveland, Moses, pioneer, 343. 

Clinton, DeWitt, at Lockport, 337. 

Company of the West, for Louisi- 
ana, 306. 

Congreg: t^onalists, in Wisconsin, 
267-269. 

Congress of Confederation, plans 
Western States, 76-79, 82. 

— of United States, adjusts terri- 
torial boundaries, 81-93. 96, 101, 
i04-[09; sells lend mines, 331; 
A ufials, 96 . Secret Journals, 77. 

Congressional Documeids, 330. 

Connecticut cedes Western terri- 
tory, 80. 

Cook, Samuel F., Drummond 
Island, 223. 

Copper mines, early French, 234, 
254-256, 303- 

Cornstalk, Shawnee chief, 6, 7. 

Cottage Grove (Wis.), 175. 

Coureurs de bois, 204, 212,215, 247, 
257, 3or, 305- , ... 

Crawford, William, Indian fighter, 

343, 350- 
Cree (Christino) Indians, 236, 24S. 
Creek, Boyd's (Wis.), 236. 
— , Catfish (Mo.), 320. 
— , Fish (West Va.), it. 
— , French (Ontario), 206, 225. 
— , Indian (111.), 136, 157, '60. 
— , Redstone (Pa.), 278, 280, 288. 
— , Sycamore (111-), 140, 148, i97" 
— , Turtle (Pa.), 279, 284, 294. 
— , Vandervenier (Wis.) 243. 
— , West Bureau (ill.), 135, 136, 142. 
—, Will's (Md.), 278, 279, 289. 
Croghan, Col. George, in War of 

1812-15, 222, 345- 



2,66 Assays in Western History 



Croghan, Dr. John, Kentucky 

pioneer, 340. 
— , William, Kentucky pioneer, 345. 
Crow Wing Reservation, 269. 
Crozat, Sieur Antliony, granted 

Louisiana, 305, 306, 316. 
Cruikshank, Ernest, "Black 

Hawk's record," 122. 
Cumberland (Md.), 279, 283, 286. 
— Gap, 6, 278. 



AD JOE," Illinois pioneer, 



D 



135- 



Dad Joe's Grove (III), i35- 

Dakota Indians. See Sioux. 

Davenport, Col. George, early 
trader, 324. 

Davilson, John Nelson, "Missions 
on Chequamegon Bay," 265, 267, 
26S ; Unnamed IVisconsin, 266. 

— and Struve, History of Illinois, 
96. 

Davis, Jefferson, in Black Hawk 
War, 144, 145, 194 ; at lead 
mines, 331. 

— County (Iowa), 195. 

— farm (111.), in Black Hawk War, 
157, 160. 

Decorah, One-eyed, Winnebago 

chief, 193, 194. 
Defiance (Wis.), 142. 
Delaware Indians, visited by 

Draper, 343. 
De Leyba, Francisco, Spanish gov- 
ernor of Louisiana, 37. 
De risle, Guillaume, map of, 252, 

305- 
— , Le Gardeur, searches for mines, 

306, 307. 
De Louvigny, , at Mackinac, 

217. 
Delta County (Mich.), 93. 
Dement, Maj. John, in Black Hawk 

War, 161, 167. 
Denison University (Ohio), 338, 339. 
Denny, William H., Memoir of 

Miij. Ebeiiezer Denny^ 30. 
De Pere (Wis.), 246, 247. 
De Renault, Philippe Frangois, in 

Illinois, 306, 307. 
Detroit, founded, 305 ; French post, 

216, 246, 251 ; British post, 8, 12- 

14, 27, 40, 63, 225; attack on, 

planned, 19, 35, 65, 66, 219; 

American city, 76, 85, 90, 97, 99, 

126. 
De Villiers, Louis Coulon, Sieur, 

French officer, 288. 



Dewitt, Abraham B., in Black 
Hawk War, 144. 

Diamond Grove (Wis.), 142. 

D'Iberville, Pierre LeMoyne, 
Sieur, in Louisiana, 303. 

Dixon, John, in Black Hawk War, 
135- 

-(111), 105. 

Dixon's Ferry, 135 ; rendezvous in 
Black Hawk War, 136, 142, 147, 
152, 156, 162, 163, 166, 172, 194. 

Doddridge, Joseph, border histo- 
rian, 339. 

Dodgej Henry, governor of Wis- 
consin, 106; in Black Hawk 
War, 160-169, 171-174, 179, 184, 
1S9, 191. 

— County (Wis.), 174. 

Dodgeville (Wis.), 136, 142. 

Dorr County (Wis.)^ 93- 

Doughty, Major , built Fort 

Washington, 313. 

Doty, James Duane, early Wiscon- 
sin leader, 97-101, 262 ; manu- 
scripts of, 98. 

Drake, Dr. Daniel, pioneer his- 
torian, 340. 

— , S. G., American historian, 349. 

Draper, Luke, 336, 339. 

— , Lyman Copeland, ancestors, 
335; early life, 335-338 ; interest 
in the Revolution, 336, 337 ; at 
Mobile, 338 ; in college, 338, 339 ; 
designs pioneer biographies, 339, 
340; correspondence, 340, 341; 
itineraries, 341-343 ; interviews 
with pioneers, 342-344. 346; in- 
terviews Indian chiefs, 343, 344; 
in Mississippi, 346-34S ; in Balti- 
more and Philadelphia, 348, 349; 
a collector, not a writer, 348, 350, 
351; founds Wisconsin Histori- 
cal Society, 352-355 ; as author, 
354; retirement, 355 ; death, 356; 
characterized, 356, 357; bequeaths 
collections, 358; Notes. 313; 
King's Mountain, 354; Draper 
Manuscripts, 27, 30, 60, 68; de- 
scribed, 335, 345, 346. 

Drummond, Robert A., invents 
blast furnace, 308. 

Duane, James, congressman from 
New York, 75, 77. 

Du Bois, , works lead mines, 

314- 

Dubuque, Julien, works lead mines, 
313-315, 317-320, 326 ; gets grant 
from Spaniards, 219, 331. 



Index 



367 



Dubuque (la.), i44, 3oo, 302, 313- 

— County (la.), lead mines in, 300, 
305. 

Ducharme, Dominique, in War of 
1812-15, 314- ^ . 

Dufour, John James, Swiss emi- 
grant, 313- 

Du Luth, Daniel Greysolon, 247, 
248, 301. 

Duluth (Minn.), 247. 

Dunbar, Col. Richard, in Brad- 
dock's campaign, 294. 

Dunbar's Camp (Pa.), 294, 295. 

Dunleith (Wis.), 314, 320. 

Dunmore, Lord John Murray, gov- 
ernor of Virginia, 6, 7. 

Duralde, Martin Miioney, applies 
for mining grant, 311. 

EARLY, Capt. Jacob M., in 
Black Hawk War, 158. 

East Meadow Run, 2S6. 

Edwards, Ninian, governor of Illi- 
nois, 100, 325 ; Papers, 100. 

Eldon (la.), 195. 

Elizabeth (111.), mines near, 315. 

Elk Grove (Wis.), 142- 

Equaysayway, Chippewa woman, 
261. 

Ewing, Col. W. L. D., in Black 
Hawk War, 171, 177? i79) 189. 

FACENBAKER, Geoffrey, 
Pennsylvania farmer, 286, 
292. 
Falls of Niagara, 225. 

— of Ohio, see Louisville. 

— of St. Anthony, 327. 

Fayette County (Pa.), History of, 
291. 

Ferry, Rev. William M., Mack- 
inac clergyman, 268. 

Fifield, Sam. S., Wisconsin citizen, 
236. 

Fire-arms, Indians learn to use, 
300,315. 

Flint, Timothy, border historian, 

339- 

Florida, expedition against, 69. 

Floyd, Serj. Q.\id.x\t%, Jottrnal, 345. 

Fonda, John H., "Reminiscences 
of Wisconsin," 186. 

Ford, Thomas, History 0/ Illitiois, 
96, 120, 121, 183, 184. 

— , Worthington C, Writings of 
Washington, 75. 

Forman, Maj. Samuel S., Narra- 
tive^ 312. 



Forsyth, Maj. Thomas, Wisconsin 

Indian agent, 327, 328. 
Fort Armstrong (Rock Island), 

125, 135, i4'< "43, 145, 194, i95« 

— Atkinson (Wis.), 172. 

— Chartres (111.), 306. 

— Clark (III), location, 329. 

— Crawford (Wis.), 133, 144, 146, 
180, 181, 331- 

— Cumberland (Md.), 289. 

— Dearborn (111.), 137- 

— Duquesne, 25, 288, 294. 

— George (Mackinac), 222, 223. 

— HamiUon (Wis.), 142, 168, 172. 

— Holmes (Mackinac), 223. 

— Howard (Wis.), 136. 

— Jefferson, on the Mississippi, 66. 

— Madison (la.), 134, 139- 

— Massac (111-), 25. 

— Necessity, 279, 2S1, 2S2, 285, 
286, 288-292. 

— Pitt, 5, 22, 23. 

— Plum River (111-), 162, i66. 

— Recovery, 82, 84. , 

— Sackville (Vincennes), surprised, 
57, 58; besieged, 58-60; surren- 
dered, 61-63 ; re-named Patrick 
Henry, 62. 

— Sumter, 145. 

— Union (Wis.), 164. 

— Wayne (Ind.), 42. 

— Wilburn (111.), 165. 

— William (Ont.), 253. 

— Winnebago (Wis.), 136, 171, 
172, 180, 182. 

Fortress Monroe, 121, 194. 

Four Lakes (Wis.), 168, 175, 176, 
178, 199- 

Fox Indians, 9, 39> "6, 118, 134, 
143, 244, 245 ; habitat, 246, 249, 
31S ; war with French, 249 ; wth 
Chippewas, 253; treaty with, 
325; own lead mines, 313, 318, 
work lead mines, 322-324, 326, 
327; in War of 1812-15,314- ^ee 
also Sauk Indians. 

Fox's Bluff (Wis.), 163. 

Fox-Wisconsin portage, 136, 171, 
232, 248. 

Franciscans, at Chequamegon, 272. 

Franklin, Benjamin, U. S. peace 
commissioner, 71, 72. 

Franauelin, Johannes Ludovicus, 
map of New France,235, 244, 252. 

Freeport (111.), 105. 

French, settlements in the North- 
west, 12, 14; furnish firearms to 
Indians, 300; life of settlers, 14- 



368 Essays in Western History 



French {continued). 

i-j, 58, 215, 216, 226, 228; 
size of grants, 311 ; favor Amer- 
icans, 32, 33, 54, 56, 65 ; as lead 
traders, 323, 324, 328, 329. 

Frontenac, Louis de Baude, Conite 
de, 252. 

Frontiersmen, characteristics, 17, 
20-22, 137, 321; Indian name 
for, 28 ; warfare with Indians, 
7, 9, 10; French fear, 18, 219; 
seek new land, 4-7, lo, 11, 72. 

Fry, Jacob, in Black Hawk War, 
144. 

Frye, Col. Henry, in Black Hawk 
War, 158, 165, 179. 

Fur-trade, territory kept for, 3, 72 ; 
French in, 12-15, 27, 215, 216, 
315; British in, 8, 72, 203, 204, 
220-227, 256, 286, 305; in Wis- 
consin, 233, 234, 247-254, 259- 
265 ; rivalled by lead mining, 323. 
See also American Fur Company 
and Hudson's Bay Company. 

GAINES, Gen. Edmund P., in 
Black Hawk War, 130, 131. 
Galena (111.), 105; named, 331; 
rendezvous in Black Hawk 
War, 134-136, 142, 161, 164, 
165, 167, 170; mines near, 301- 

309, 315, 318, 32i-324> 326, 329; 
Gazette, 100. 

Galissoniere, Comte de la, gov- 
ernor of New France, 256. 

Genet, Charles E., .expedition of, 
68-70. 

Georgia, Genet's expedition in, 
69 ; manuscript relating to, 346. 

Gibault, Pierre, Kaskaskia priest, 
33? 34- 

Girty, Mike, British agent, 141, 
159, 160. _ _ 

— , Simon, British scout, 66. 

Gist, Christopher, pioneer scout, 
279. 

Gordon, Capt. Harry, Journal, 

310. _ 

Gosselin, A. Yi..,Jean Ntcolet, 207. 

Grand Portage (Minn.), 225, 226, 
248. 

Grant County (Wis.), lead mines 
in, 300 ; History of, 316. 

Gratiot, Henry, Wisconsin pio- 
neer, 144, 160, 163. 

Gratiot's Grove (Wis.), 142. 

Gravier, Father Jacques, Jesuit 
missionary, 304, 305. 



Great Meadow Run (Pa.), 290. 

— Meadows, 286, 288, 289, 292. 
Green Bay (Wis.), 12, 15, 97, loi, 

181, 210, 213, 225, 311, 328; 

Jesuit mission at, 233, 245-247 ; 

Advocate, 214; Sunday Messew 

g-er, 214, 
Greenville (Ohio), 83, 84 ; treaty of, 

84, 224. ^ 

Groseilliers, Medard Chouart, Sieur 

de, French explorer, 207, 209, 

213, 300; on Lake Superior, 234- 

239, 247 ; in Minnesota, 239, 

240 ; returns to Canada, 241 ; 

deserts to English, 242. See 

also Radisson. 
Guis, Monsieur le, describes lead 

mines, 307-309. 
Gulf of Mexico, 212, 232. 

— of St. Lawrence, 232, 240. 

HALDIMAND, Gen. Freder- 
ick, governor of Canada, 314. 

Hall, Benjamin F., border histo- 
rian, 339. 

Hall, Rachel, captured by Indians, 
160, 164. 

— , Rev. Sherman, Wisconsin mis- 
sionary, 265-269. 

— , Sylvia, captured by Indians, 
160, 164. 

— , Gen. William, governor of Ten- 
nessee, 343. 

— , William, Illinois pioneer, 160. 

Hamilton, Henry, governor at De- 
troit, 8, 40; councils with In- 
dians, 9 ; recaptures Vincennes, 
40-42 ; attempts capture of Clark, 
42-44 ; suspects Vigo, 45 ; sur- 
prised by Clark, 51, 54-59; 
besieged by Clark, 58-60 ; treats 
with Clark, 60, 61 ; surrenders, 
61 ; prisoner, 62, 63 ; lieutenant- 
governor of Quebec, 63 ; gov- 
ernor of Dominica, 63. 

— , William S., early lead miner, 
142, 168. 

Hampshire County (Va.), 23. 

Hand, Gen. Edward, Revolutionary 
officer, 23. 

Hanks, Lieut. Porter, commandant 
at Mackinac, 221, 224. 

Harmar, Gen. Josiah, pioneer sol- 
dier, 345, 350- . , , 

Harney, Maj. William S., m Black 
Hawk War, 146. 

Harrison, William Henry, 82, 344, 
346. 



Index 



369 



Harrodsburg (Ky.), 10. 

Hebberd, S. S., IVisconsm under 

French Dovimiott, 249. 
Helena (Wis. ), 183. 
Helm, Leonard, Clark's captain, 

20, 34, 38,41) 60, 63. 
Hennepin, Louis, French explorer, 

24S ; map of, 301. 
- (111.). 142. 

Henry, , at Vincennes, 41. 

— , Alexander, fur-trader, 255, 258- 

260; Travels and Adventures, 

246, 258, 259. 
— , Daniel, describes Clark's cam- 
paign, 30. 
— , Maj. James D., in Black Hawk 

War, 144, 158, 165, 166, 169, 171- 

174, 182-184, 189-191. 
— , Patrick, governor of Virginia, 

18, 22, 23, 26, 36, 62-64. 
Herculaneum (Mo.), shot tower at, 

322. 
Hermitage, Jackson's home, 346. 
Hildreth, Richard, commends 

Draper, 349. 
— , S. P., pioneer, 340. 
Holderman's Grove (III), 136. 
Holmes, Maj. Andrew H,, killed 

at Mackinac, 222. 
— , Lieut. Reuben, in Black 

Hawk War, 187. 
— , W. H., explores Lake Superior, 

234- 

HopwoodCPa.), 281. 

Hough, Franklin B., American 
Constitutions, c,\. 

Houghton Point (Wis.), 240. 

Hudson's Bay Company, 208, 235, 
242, 255. 

Hulbert, Archer Butler, Historic 
Highways, 135. 

Hunt, , fur-trader, 227. 

Hu7it''s MercJuifits' Magazine, 302. 

Huron, proposed territory of, 100. 

— Indians, 258; Jesuit mission to, 
208-210, 235, 239, 241-246; vis- 
ited by Draper, 343. 

Hustisford (Wis.), 169, 173. 

Hutchins, Thomas, chart of, 85. 

ILES, Capt. Elijah, in Black 
Hawk War, 158. 
lUinoia, proposed State of, 77, 78. 
Illinois, under French regime, 17, 
207, 306 ; under British regime, 
3,24,32; captured by Americans, 
28-42 ; erected into a county, 64, 
65 ; made a territory, 92, 93 ; 



Illinois {continued). 
made a State, 92,95,96; boun- 
daries of, 99-101, 104-107, no, 
166 ; lead mines in, 162, 300, 302, 
306-310, 329; in Black Hawk 
War, 130, 135-166, 193? 198-200; 
manuscripts relating to, 346. 

Illinois Indians, 213, 245; leBrn 
use of firearms, 300. 

Indiana, under British regime, 3, 
40-42, 54-62 ; made a territory, 
83, 84, 95 ; territory divided, 86, 
92, 93 ; admitted as State, 93 ; 
settlers of, 137. 

Indians, hunting grounds of, 3, 6 ; 
harry the border, 6, 8, 10, 17, 22, 
28, 65, 66 ; incited by British, 
X19, 120, 223, 323, 344; relation 
to French, 17, 34, 38, 320, 321; 
Clark's methods with, 38-40, 54- 
59, 65, 219. See also the sepa- 
rate tribes. 

Iowa, included in Illinois, 306 ; 
made a territory, 107, no, 195 ; 
historical archives of, 194, i95- 

— City, capital of State, 195. 

— County (Wis.), lead mines in, 
300. 

— Indians, 39. 

Iroquois Indians, enemies of New 

France, 216, 234; war with 

Hurons, 20S-211, 23O1 245. 246- 
Irvine, William, Revolutionary 

soldier, 346. 
Irving, Washington, Astoria, 226. 
Island, Bass wood, in Chequamegon 

Bay, 252. 
— , Bois Blanc, 99, 219. 
— , Corn, Clark's rendezvous, 24, 70. 
— , Drummond's, 99, 223. 
— , La Pointe. See Madelaine. 
— , Mackinac, 204, 210, 217, 219, 

220. 
—, Madelaine, 240, 241, 249, 252, 

257, 260, 262, 266, 274; early 

names for, 2.52, 256. 
Islands, Manitoulin, 206, 208, 210, 

246. 
— , Twelve Apostles, 239, 244. 
Isle La Grosse. See Mackinac. 

— Ronde. 5^^ Madelaine. 

— Royale, in Lake Superior, 234. 

— St. Josephs, 220, 222. 

T.A.CKER, Edward, Mackinac 
J missionary, 214. 
Jackson, Andrew, in Creek War, 
343 ; message on admission of 



24 



370 Essays in Western History 



Jackson, Andrew {continued). 
Michigan, 90; visited by Draper, 

344. 347- 

— George E., Missouri miner, 
320-322. 

— (Wis.), 142. 

James, Maj. Thomas, in Black 
Hawk War, 144. 

James, Rev. Woodbridge L., Wis- 
consin missionary, 268. 

Jay, John, American peace com- 
missioner, 71, 72. 

Jefferson, Thomas, addresses 
Clark, 67, 68 ; proposes Western 
States, 77, 78. 

— (Wis.), 174. 

— Barracks (St. Louis), 144, 194. 

— Junction (Wis.), 175. 

Jesuit missions, 12, 28, 34, 204, 

207-211, 213, 216, 219, 220, 233, 

240, 242-247, 272. 
Jesuit Relatio7ts, 208, 235, 243, 

244. 

Jobin, , Frenchman killed, 252. 

Jo Daviess County (111-)) ioi> 106; 

lead mines in, 300, 308 ; History 

^,316,333- . . . 

Jogues, Isaac, Jesuit missionary, 

207, 209. 
Johnson, Benjamin, in lead trade, 

328. 
— , Col. James, 147 ; in lead mines, 

326, 329. 
— , Col. Richard M., of Kentucky, 

326, 340, 344. 
Johnston, John, at Chequamegon 

Bay, 259, 260. 
Jolliet, Louis, 212, 213, 235, 300. 
Jones, Col. Gabriel, in Black 

Hawk War, 179. 
Jouan, Henri, " Interprete voya- 

geur au Canada," 207. 
Joutel, Henri, early French trav- 
eller, 301. 
Jumonviile, Joseph Coulon, Sieur 

de, French officer, 288, 293-295 ; 

camp of, 2S2, 293, 294. 
Juneau, Solomon, Milwaukee 

pioneer, 137. 

KAMINISTIQUA (Ont.), 253. 
Kansas City (Mo.), 97. 
Kaskaskia (111.), early French set- 
tlement, 12-14, 306, 309; cap- 
tured by Americans, 24-32, 58, 
64, 219 ; habitants aid Americans, 
33-36, 44, 47 ; made county seat, 
65; lead market, 313. 



Kellogg's Grove (111.), 135, 142, 
161, 166-168. 

— trail, 135, 329. 

Kenton, Simon, Indian fighter, 
343) 346, 350. 

Kentucky, settlement of, 6-8, 11; 
raided, 10, 17, 18, 42, 46; protec- 
tion for, 66, 289 ; pioneers of, 24, 
28, 137, 340, 342 ; Genet's expe- 
dition in, 69, 70; manuscripts re- 
lating to, 346. 

Keokuk, Fox chief, 119, 124, 125, 
134) 192, 195- . , . 

Keweenaw Point (Mich.), 236, 

253- ^ . 

Kickapoo Indians, 57, 244, 245. 

Kilbourn City (Wis.), 193- 

Kingsbury, Lieut. Gaines P., in 
Black Hawk War, 187. 

King's Mountain, manuscripts re- 
lating to, 346 ; Draper's book on, 

Kinzie, Mrs. John H., IVazt Bttn, 
180. 

LABUXIERE, Joseph, attor- 
ney at St. Louis, 311. 
Lacassangue, Michael, Louisville 

merchant, 313. 
Lac Courte Oreille (Wis.), 12, 241, 
262, 264. 

— Flambeau (Wis.), 12, 264. 
Lachine Rapids, 206, 213. 

La Fayette, Marquis de, visits 
United States, 337. 

— County (Wis.), 160 : lead mines 
in, 300, 320; History of, 320, 
322, 326, 328. 

La Hontan, Armand Louis de 
Delondarce, Baron de, early 
French traveller, 301. 

Lake Assiniboin, 226, 241. 

— Chetek(Wis.), 12. 

— of the Desert, 102. 

— Erie, 6, 12, 74, 85, 86, 95, 216. 

— Geneva (Wis.), 136. 

— Great Slave, 225. 

— Horicon (Cranberry Lake, 
Wis.), 174. 

— Huron, 12, 76, 95, 99, 203, 205, 
214, 216, 246. 

— Kegonsa (First Lake, Wis ), 

— 'Koshkonong (Wis.), Black 
Hawk at, 154, 159, 160, 168-172, 
183. 

— Mendota (Fourth Lake, Wis.), 
163, 164, 177. 



Index 



371 



Lake Michigan 203, 214, 219, 301 ; 
explored, 207, 231 ; Indians near, 
9; trails from, 136, 137; as a 
boundary, 76, 81, 84-89, 92, 93, 
96-102, 105, 232. 

— Mills (Wis.), 175- 

— Monona (Third Lake, Wis.), 
176, 177. 

— Nipissing, 206. 

— Ontario, 216. 

— Peoria (111.), lead purchased 
at, 302. 

— Pepin (Wis.), 303- 

— St. Clair, 76, 95. 

— Sandy, 247. 

— Shawano (Wis.), 9. 

— Superior, as a boundary, 103, 
no, 232 ; Indians of, 8, 240-247, 
250 ; e-xplored, 206-209, 235-239 ; 
copper mines near, 234, 254-256 ; 
missions on, 242-247 ; com- 
merce cf, 203, 214, 226, 247-256; 
map of, 252, 264. 

— Waubesa (Second Lake, Wis.), 
176. 

— Winnipeg, 226. 

Lallemant, Jerome, Jesuit mission- 
ary, 235. 
La INIothe. See Cadillac. 
La Motte, Monsieur de, finds lead 

mines, 306, 309. 
Langlade, Charles, early Wiscon- 
sin settler, 12. 
La Pointe, Story of, 231-274; ori- 
gin of name, 243, 261 ; locations, 
273. See also Bay, Chequamegon. 
La Potherie, Bacqueville de, French 

historian, 302. 
La Prairie du Rocher, 43. 
La Ronde, Denys de, junior, 254- 

256. 
— , Louis Denys, Sieur de, 252, 

254-256. 
Larrabee, Charles H., Wisconsin 

citizen, 347, 348? 352- ,. 
La Salle, Robert Cavelier, Sieur 

de, 247. 
-(Ill-), 136. 

Laurel Hills (Pa.), 280,281. _ _ 
Law, John, grantee of Louisiana, 

306. 
— , John, Colonial History of Vin- 

ceujies, 52. 
Lead mines, 124, 136, 142, 144? 162, 
299-332. 

Le Font, Dr. , Jesuit, at Kas- 

kaskia, 34- 
Lena (111.), i6i. 



Le Sueur, Pierre Charles, early 
French explorer, 248-252, 303-305. 

Lewis, Freeman, surveyed Fort 
Necessity, 290. 

Lewis and Clark's expedition, 68, 

Libby, Orin G., " Chronicle of 
Helena Shot Tower," 184. 

Lincoln, Abraham, in Black Hawk 
War, 144, 158. ^ , 

Linctot, Sieur de, French com- 
mandant, 253. 

— , Godefroy, aids Americans, 40. 

Little Meadows (Pa.), 286. 

Little Thunder, Winnebago chief. 
174. 

Lodge, Henry Cabot, Story of 
Revolutioti, 30. 

Logan, Benjamin, Kentucky 
pioneer, n. 

Logan's Station (Ky.), 10. 

Long, Maj. Thomas, in Black 
Hawk War, 144. 

Lossing, Benson J,, American his- 
torian, 349-352- 

Louisiana, under French regime, 
80, 299-309 ; under Spanish re- 
gime, 37) 41. 45» 309-3 i4» 319; 
retroceded to France, 320; pur- 
chased by United States, 96, 320 ; 
map of, 305 ; mines in, 299-331. 

Louisville (Ky.), 20, 23, 35, 36, 64, 

65,711313.^ T^ T 

Louvigny. See De Louvigny. 
Lucas, Robert, governor of Iowa, 

195. 
Lynn, Capt. , Revolutionary 

soldier, 23. 

McBRIDE, David, " Capture 
of Black Hawk," 193- 

McCarty, Capt. Richard, in Clark's 
campaign, 61. 

McDonald, John, pioneer, 340. 

McDouall, Col. Robert, command- 
ant at Mackinac, 223. 

McDowell, John, Indian fighter, 
345. 

McHenry County (111.), 106. 

McKee, Alexander, border rene- 
gade, 66. 

McKenney, Thomas 1.., History of 
Ifidian Tribes, 252, 260. 

Mackenzie, Alexander, explorer, 
232. 

Mackinac, Story of, 203-228 ; me- 
ridian of, 86, 92, ic-o; French 
post, 203, 214, 216-218, 248, 255; 



372 Essays in Western Histo7y 



Mackinac, Story of {continued). 
British, 12-14, 203, 218-220, 314; 
American, 203, 220-224, 262 ; mis- 
sions at, 246, 247, 265, 268 ; fur- 
trade, 211, 215, 224-227, 251. 

— boats, 146. 

— County (Mich.)) 93) 102. 

— Strait, 207, 217 

Mackinaw City (Mich.), 204, 217. 

Macklot, J., early shot-maker, 322. 

Madison (Wis.), 107, 163, 168, 175, 
177-179. 

Maiden, British at, 120, 123, 126, 
129, 132, 136. 

Margry, Pierre, Dkouvertes et 
HablissenieiUs des FranQciis, 246, 
304. 

Marquette, Jacques, Jesuit mis- 
sionary, 210-214, 235, 245-247, 
270, 271, 300 ; journa) of, 213, 301. 

Martin, Col. William, pioneer, 340, 

350- 

" Martin Manuscripts," Canadian 
Archives, 256. 

Mason, George, governor of Vir- 
ginia, 90; Clark's letter to, 19, 
22, 30, 50, 64. 

Massachusetts, cedes Western lands, 
80. 

Matson, Nehemiah, Memories cf 
Shaubena, 141. 

Mecklenburg (N. C), Declaration 
of Independence, 346. 

Meeker, Dr. Moses, establishes 
mining colony, 330. 

Menard, R^ne, Jesuit missionary, 
209, 242. 

Menominee Indians, 9 ; in War of 
1812-1815, 314; in Black Hawk 
War, 131, 132, 141, 181; mission 
to, 272. 

Merriam, Adj. , in Black Hawk 

War, 174. 

Matropotamia, proposed State of, 
77, ?8. 

Miami Indians, 39, 75, 241;, 302. 

Michillimackinac. See Mackinac. 

Michigan, under British regime, 3, 
40 ; as territory, 86, 87, 95-98, 
io8, 136, 142, 154, 157; State pro- 
posed, 76 ; State erected, 91 ; 
upper peninsula of, 90-94, 100, 
102, 104; boundaries of, 88-104, 
236; Indians of, 227; Herald^ 
100; Pioneer Collections, 312. 

Michigania, proposed State of, 77, 
78. 

Middleport (Wis.), 270, 274. 



Mille Lac region, 236, 240, 248. 

Miller, John S., early lead miner, 
32t, 322. 

Mills, David, Report on Bounda- 
ries of Ontario, 301. 

Milwaukee, 12, 133. 

Mineral Point (Wis.), 134, 136, 142. 

Minnesota, explored, 239, 240; as 
a territory, 109-111; boundaries 
of, 23s, 247, 248; Indians of, 8, 
18 , 188, 250 ; Historical Collec- 
tions, 233, 240, 241, 243, 249, 250, 
252, 253, 256, 258, 259, 261, 262, 
264, 265. 

Missions, Jesuit, 233, 240-247 ; 
Protestant, 265-270. 

Missouri, belongs to Illinois, 306 ; 
lead mines in, 300, 305, 312, 314, 
320, 328, 330; boundaries of, 96, 
99, 104, 1 10 ; Indian purchase in, 
116. 

Mitchell, John, map, 84, 85. 

Mohawk Indians, visited by Draper, 
343, 344. 

Monroe County (111), De Renault's 
grant in, 307. 

Montreal, 15, 225, 234, 241, 242, 
251, 252, 256, 261. 

Moore, Charles, " Discoveries of 
Lake Superior," 209. 

Morgan, Indian chief, 119. 

Moundsville (111.), 25. 

Mount Braddock (Pa.), 279. 

Monntraille County (Dak.), 96. 

Muir, Samuel C, in lead mines, 326. 

MuUamphy, John, early Missouri 
settler, 331. 

NASHVILLE (Tenn.), 347. 
Natchez (Miss.), 66. 

Neapope, Sauk chief, 132, 133, 139, 
178, 179, 182, 194, 197. 

Neill, Edward, History of Minne- 
sota, 303, 305 ; " History of Ojib- 
ways," 243, 249, 256, 267. 

Nemacolin, Delaware Indian, 279 ; 
his path, 279, 2S0, 286, 288, 289, 
294. 

Neville and Martin, Historic Green 
Bay, 233. 

Newark (111.), 136. 

New France. See Canada. 

New Orleans, 27, 310, 344. 

New York, pioneers, 342 ; manu- 
scripts relating to, 346 ; Colonial 
Documents, 255, 256; Nation, 
226. 

Niagara, fort at, 251. 



Index 



373 



Nicolay and '^T.y, Abraham Lin- 
coln, 138. 

Nicolet, Jean, French explorer, 
206, 207, 231, 233, 234, 253, 300. 

Northwest, discovered, 206; taken 
for France, 208, 249 ; Britisli con- 
trol in, 224-226 ; conquest of, 3-72. 

North West Fur Company, 224, 
225, 255, 262. 

Northwest Territory, boundaries, 
75,76; organized, 76-82 ; divided 
into States, 82-1 11. 

Noiie, Robertel de la, French com- 
mandant, 253. 

O'BAIL, Maj. Henry, Senieca 
chief, 337. 
Odanah Reservation (Wis.), 269, 

273- 

Ogden, George W., Letters from 
the West, 312. 

Ogle County (111.), 106. 

Ohio, part of Quebec, 3 ; Indian 
raids from, 65-67 ; State organ- 
ized, 76, 84-86; iDOundaries of, 
88-92, 95, loi, 104, 105 ; pioneers 
of, 137, 340, 342 ; manuscripts 
relating to, 346. 

— Company, 278, 279. 

Old Mackinaw. See Mackinaw 

City. 
Oneida Indians, visited by Draper, 

343- ^ ^ 

Onontio, Indian name for French 
governor, 252. 

Ordinance of 1787, 79-82. S4-87, 
93, 95, 101-106. 

Oregon (111.), 105. 

Osage Indians, 39. 

Ottawa Indians, 39, 132, 209, 210, 
234, 240, 241, 244-246; reserva- 
tion for, 325. 

— U11-). 157, 158, 160, 165, 318. 

PAQUETTE, Pierre, Wisconsin 
pioneer, 172, 173, 182. 

Parish, Thomas J., in Black Hawk 
War, 142. 

Parish's (Wis.), 142. 

Parkinson, Col. Daniel L.,in Black 
Hawk War, 142. 

Pavkman, Francis. commends 
Draper, 349 ; Conspiracy of 
Pontiac, 218; Hnf Century of 
Confict, 2^q\ Jesuits, 20S. 

— Club Publications, 20f). 
Patterson, J. B., edits Black 

Hawk's Autobiography, 120. 



Patterson, Robert, pioneer, 346. 

Payne, , in lead trade, 328. 

Pearson, Philippe, Jesuit mission- 
ary, 212. 

Pelisipia, proposed State of, 77, 78. 

Penicaut, , journal of, 303, 304. 

Pennsylvania, 5, 19, 137; as a 
boundarj', 76, 79, 81 ; manu- 
scripts relating to, 346 ; Histori- 
cal Society Publications, 30. 

Peoria (111.), 135, 142, 329; De 
Renault's grant near, 307. 

Peosta, Fox warrior, 313. 

Perrot, Nicholas, early French ex- 
plorer, 301 ; lead mines of, 30;;;, 
304- 

Perry (N. Y.), Democrat, 347. 

Peru (111.), 136, 142, 165. 

Pheasant Branch (Wis.), 177. 

Philadelphia, 79. 

Piankeshaw Indians, 57. 

Pickaway Plains (Ohio), 7. 

Pickens, Andrew, South Carolina 
pioneer, 343. 

Pictured Rucks of Lake Superior, 
236. 

Pike, Maj. Zebulon M., Expedi- 
tion, 319, 320. 

Pirtle, Alfred, Clark'^s Campaign, 

47, 55- 
Pittman, Capt. Philip, Settlements 

on the Mississi/'/'i, 311, 312. 
Pittsburg, 277, 288, 313. 
PIatteville(Wis.), loi, 142. 
Point aux Pins, Lake Superior, 

255- 

— St. Ignace. See Mackinac. 
Polvpotamia, proposed State of, 77, 

78. 

Pepe, Nathaniel, Illinois congress- 
man, 96. 

Portage des Sioux, 125. 

Posey, Gen. Alexander, in Black 
Hawk War, 161, 165-172, 184, 
189. 

Potawatomi Indians, 9, 39, 244- 
246; in Black Hawk War, 122, 
127, 132, 136, 139, 140, 148-154, 
159, 160, 166; treaty with, 325; 
visited by Draper, 343. 

Potosi (Mo.), mines near, 306, 309. 

— (Wis.), mines near, 304. 
Potter, James, pioneer, 346. 
Pownall, Thomas, chart by, 85 ; 

Topographical Description, 310. 

Prairie du Chien (Wis.), 9, 212 ; 

French trading post, 12, 15, 40; 

in Black Hawk War, 126, 132, 



374 Essays in Western History 



Prairie du Chien {contifmed). 

144, 146, 181, 1S6, 188, 193 ; lead 
market, 313, 322, 323, 328. 

Prairie du Sac (WisJ, 180, 310. 

Presbyterians, in Wisconsin, 265- 
269. 

Preston, Senator, arranges North- 
west boundaries, 102. 

— , William C, pioneer, 340, 346. 

Price's station (Ky.), 10. 

Prince Society Publications, 209. 

Prophet. See White Cloud. 

/^UASHQUAME, Indian chief, 

Quebec, founded, 205 ; early ex- 
plorers start from, 212, 231; In- 
dians trade at, 250 ; province of, 3. 

RADISSON, Pierre d'Esprit, 
Sieur de, French explorer, 
207, 209, 213, 247; in Wisconsin, 
234,300; on Lake Superior, 235- 
239, 243, 244, 273 ; in Minnesoia, 
239, 240; returns to Canada, 241 ; 
deserts to British, 242 ; Jottrnal, 
209, 235, 236, 240. See also 
Groseilliers. 

Randall, Henry Stephen, Life of 
fe^erson, 78. 

Raudin, Sieur de, in fur-trade, 247. 

Raymbault, Charles, Jesuit mis- 
sionary, 207, 209. 

Red Ciiff (Wis ), 248. 

Redstone. See Brownsville. 

Red Wing (Minn.), 250. 

Remsen, Peter A., cotton mer- 
chant, aids Draper, 338-340, 348, 
349; death, 352. 

Reynolds, Cov. John, in Black 
Hawk War, 130, 131, 141, 142, 

145. 157? 15S, 162, 165, 170; My 
Own Tii7ies, 121, 131, 146, 151, 

157. 163. 171. 172, 1S2, 191. 
Ritner, Lieut. Joseph, m Black 

Hawk War, i8r. 
River, Apple (111.), 135, 142, 161; 

mines on, 314, 328. 
— , Arkansas, 225. 
— , Athabasca, 204, 232. 
— , Bad (Wis.), 269. 
— , Bad Axe (Wis.), 186-190. 
— , Bark (Wis.), 169, 170, 172. 
— , Big Miami, 66, 75, 81. 
— , Black (Wis.), 209, 304. 
— , Blue (Minn.), 304. 
— , Bois Brule (Wis), 248, 249, 254, 

255. 



River, Buffalo (Wis.), 304. 

— , Catfish (Wis.), 177. 
- — , Chicago, 249. 

— , Chippewa (Wis.), 304. 

— , Columbia, 204. 

— , Des Moines, 134, 195. 

— , Embarrass, 49, 50. 

— , Fever. See Galena. 

— , Fox (111), 116. 

— , — (Wis.), 39, 136, 234, 235, 246. 
See also Fox- Wisconsin portage. 

— , Galena, lead mines of, 299, 302, 
304, 305, 308, 3095 3155 322-326, 
329-331- 

— , Grant (Wis.), lead mine on, 304. 

— , Great Kanawha, 23. 

— , Holston, settlement at, 24. 

— , Illinois, 40, 116, 135, 136, 141, 
142, 154, 306 ; mines on, 307. 

— , Iron (Mich.), 255. 

— , Iroquois (111.), 155. 

— , James (Va. ), 66. 

— , Joachim (Mo.), 322. 

— , Kaskaskia (111), 26, 28. 

— , Kentucky, 82, 313. 

— , Kishwaukee (111.), 149, 154, 156, 
i57» 167, 199- 

— , Mad, 75. 

— , Maumee, 40, 75, 76, 85, 86, 89. 

— , Menominee (Wis), 102, 103. 

— , Meramec (Mo.), lead mines on, 
306. 

— , Milwaukee, 9, 137. 

— , Mississippi, explored, 207, 212, 
2i3> 235, 247, 24S, 300, 304, 305 ; 
French control, 233 ; French 
posts on, 250, 303 ; Spanish set- 
tlements on, 69; Indians on, 9, 
39, 65, 118, 123, 131, 134, 139, 
140, 166, 174, 180, 185, 197; 
battle upon, 186, 188; fugitives 
cross, 191-193 ; Clark on, 25, 66; 
as a boundary, 79, 80, 95-97, 107- 
iio, 116, 232; lead-mining on, 
299-332 ; commerce on, 143. 

— , Missouri, 96, 97, 99, 104, 118. 

— , Monongahela, 277, 278, 28S. 

— , Montreal, 102, 103, 236. 

— , Muskingum, 71. 

— , Ohio, as a boundary, 3, 5, 6, 17, 
18, 76, 79, 8i, 82, 92 ; settlements 
on, 8, 12 ; Clark on, 23, 25, 46, 
47 ; voyage down, 278 ; le.id 
transported on, 313. 

— , Ottawa, 206, 216, 225. 

— , Ozarl:, 23. 

— , Peckatonica (Wis.), battle near, 
160. 



Index 



375 



River, Pigeon, 226, 232, 251, 253; 

early name for, 235. 
— , Platte, 204, 225. 
— , Platte (Wis.), lead mine on 

304- 
— , Potomac, 278. 
— , Raisin, battle near, 85. 
— , Rock, 9, 135, 139) i54> i99 ; 
Black Hawk's village on, 118, 
128, 196 ; Winnebago village, 
127, 140, 143; settlements, 141, 
165 ; pursuit of Black Hawk, 
145, 156-159, 162, 171-175- 
— , Rum, 248. 
— , St. Croix, 108, no, 248, 249, 

254, 264, 303, 304. ^ . 
— , St. Francois (Mo.), mines near, 

306. 
— , St. Josephs (Mich.), 1^, 249. 
— , St. Lawrence, 206,215,241,257. 
— , St. Louis, no, 247, 248, 251. 
— , St. Mary, 99, 223. 
— , Sugar (Wis.), 168. 
— , Thames, battle on, 122. 
— , Wabash, 12, 40, 46, 47, 51, 65, 
66,80, 81, 126; drowned lands 
of, 48, 49. 
— , White Earth, 96, 97, 104. 
—, Whitewater (Wis. ), 170. 
— , Wisconsin (Ouisconsin), 9, 154, 
199, 234 ; Dalles of, 188, 193 ; 
survey of, 304; Indians on, 116, 
118 ; Menard, 242 ; French post, 
302 ; Black Hawk, 170, 177, 180, 
183 ; territory named for, 99. 
— , Youghiogheny, 286. 
Riviere i la Mine. See Galena. 
Roads, National (Pa.), 279, 281, 

283, 285. 
Robertson, James, Tennessee 

pioneer, 343, 350. 
Rocheblave, Philippe de. com- 
mandant at Kaskaskia, 27, 30, 31, 
33, 36. 
Rochester (N. Y.), Gem, 338. 
Rockford (111.), 105, 106. 
Rock Island (111.), 99. "§. '31, 
135, i93> 303, 322; settled, 324. 
— Island County (111.), 106. 
Rogers, Lieut. John, in Clark's 

campaign, 46, 62. 
Royal India Company of Illinois, 
306. 

ST. ANGE, Louis de Bellerive, 
Sieur de, commaudant of Illi- 
nois, 311. 
St. Clair, Gen. Arthur, governor of 



St. Clair, Gen. Arthur {contifiued). 
Northwest Territory, 82, 350 ; 
Papers, 82. 

Ste. Genevieve (Mo.), lead market, 
312. 

St. Francis Xavier mission. Green 
Bay, 246, 247. 

St. Ignace (Mich.), 211, 214, 217; 
mission, 247. See also ^IzcVSvxzc. 

St. Louis (Mo.), 37, 45, 46, 125, 
126, 143, 194, 311-313, 319.322- 
327; Pastoral Blati, 214. 

Saint-Lusson, Sieur de, takes pos- 
session of Northwest, 208, 249,259. 

St. Paul (Minn.), no. 

St. Philippe, early Illinois settle- 
ment, 307. 

St. Pierre, Paul le Gardeur, Sieur 
de, French explorer, 253. 

Sarp, , fur-trader, 312. 

Saratoga, proposed State of, 77, 78 

Sauk Indians, habitat, 9, 39, 40, 
118, 119, 128, 136, 244-246, 310, 
318; in War of 1812-15, 314; 
own lead mines, 313-318, 322- 
324, 326, 327; treaty with, 325; 
encroached upon, 124, 128, 131, 
197; massacre Menominees, 131, 
132 ; raid the border, 166-178 ; 
battle with, 179, 180 ; seek peace, 
1 82, 183; retreat, 183-18S; last 
battle of, 188-192. See also 
Black Hawk and Fox Indians. 

Sauk trail, 136. 

Sault Ste. Marie, 206-208, 225, 235, 
245, 249, 251, 253, 255, 256, 259, 
260. 

Scharf, J. T., Si. Louts, 311, 312. 

Schoolcraft, Henry B., Narrative, 
244, 252, 262 ; Discovery of 
Sources 0/ Mississippi River, 
313 ; View of Lead Mines of 
Missouri, 314. 

— County (Mich.), 93. 

Scotc'i, in fur-trade, 225. 

Scott, Gen. Winfield, in Black 

Hawk War, 15S, 193. 
Seneca Indians, visited by Draper, 

343- _ 

Sevier, John, Tennessee pioneer, 
343, 350. 

Shaubena, Potawatomi chief, 122, 
141, 148, ms- 

Shaw, Capt. John.'lead trader, 323. 

Shawnee Indians, 6, 122, 343. 

Shea, John Gilmary, Early Missis- 
sippi I 'oyages, 303 ; Charlevoix'' 5 
Histoire, 307. 



37^ JSssays m Western History 



Shelburne, Lord, on fur-trac!e, 72. 
Shelby, Isaac, Western pioneer, 

343- 
Shepherd, David, pioneer, 346. 
Shore's Landing (Wis.), 236. 
Shot manufacture, 322. 
Shreeve, Henry, lead trader, 323. 
Shall, Jesse W., in lead mines, 

326. 
Shullsburg(Wis.), 142.^ 
Sinclair, Patrick, British officer, 

218, 219, 223, 314. 
Sinsiniwa Mound (Wis. ), 162. 
Sire, Joseph A., lead merchant, 

312. 
Sioux Indians, habitat, 8, 187, 210, 

240 ; war with Chippewas, 244- 

248, 253 ; in Black Hawk War, 

131, 187, 192, 197; lead mines 

among, 300. 
Smith, William R., History of 

Wisconsin, 163. 
Smithsonian Institution, 234. 
Soulard, James G., early traveller, 

326. 
South Carolina, pioneers of, 340 ; 

manuscripts relating to, 346. 

— Ottawa (111.). 136, 142. 

South West Fur Company, 224, 

SpafEord's Farm (Wis.), 160. 

Spaniards, on Mississippi, 69; work 
mines, 314; grant land to Du- 
buque, 319, 331; befriend Clark, 
36-38. . ,. . 

Sparks, Jared, American historian, 
291, 349. 

" Speedwell," Lake Superior 
vessel, 255. 

Spooner, Abigail, Wisconsin mis- 
sionary, 268. 

Stambaugh, Col. S. C, in Black 
Hawk War, i8i. 

Stephenson, Capt. J. W., in Black 
Hawk War, 164, 168. 

— County (111.), 106, 161. 
Stiilman, Maj. Isaiah, in Black 

Hawk War, 147-153, 156, 163, 
165. 

Stiilman' s Run. See Creek, Syca- 
more. 

Stoddard, Maj. Amos, Sketches of 
L ouisin7ia ,312. 

Street, Gen. Joseph, Wisconsin 
Indian agent, 132, 181, 193, 194. 

Suggett, , in lead trade, 328. 

Sully, R. M., paints Black Hawk's 
portrait, 121. 



Suite, Benjamin, Melanges, 270. 

Sumter, Gen. Thomas, pioneer, 
343, 346- 

Sylvania, proposed State of, 77, 78. 

Symmes, John CI eves, Ohio pio- 
neer, 346. 

TALCOTT, Capt. A., surveyor, 
85, 89. 

Tawanears (Governor Blacksnake), 
Seneca chief, 344. 

Taylor, Col. Zachary, in Black 
Hawk War, 146, 169. 

Tecumseh, 122, 127; death of, 326, 
344 ; papers concerning, 346. 

Tennessee, 66, 329, 340, 342 ; manu- 
scripts relating to, 346. 

Thomas, Henry, early Illinois set- 
tler, 135. 

— , Col. John, in Black Hawk War, 
144. 

— , Lieut. M., superintendent of 
lead mines, 330. 

Thompson, Samuel M., in Black 
Hawk War, 144. 

Throckmorton, John, captain of 
the" Warrior," 186. 

Thwaites, Reuben Gold, " Boun- 
daries of Wisconsin," iii ; Hen- 
nepin's New Discoz'ery, 248 ; 
Father Ularqiietie, 214; Story 
of Wisconsin, 303. 

Timms's Grove (111.), 161. 

Todd, Andrew, trader in Upper 
Louisiana, 319. 

— , Charles S., pioneer, 340. 

— , John, county-Heutenaut of Illi- 
nois, 64, 65. 

Toledo (Ohio), 89. 

Tommy Jimmy, Seneca chief, 337. 

Treaties, Ghent, 122, 222, 224 ; 
Jay, 220, 224, 225 ; Paris, 71, 80, 
220. 

Turner, Frederick Jackson, " Clark 
Manuscripts," 27 ; '' Corre- 
spondence of Clark and Genet," 
69; " Fur Trade in Wisconsin," 
225- 

Tuscarora Indians, visited by 
Draper, 343. 

Two Rivers (Wis.), 12. 

UNDERWOOD, Joseph R., 
pioneer, 340. 
Union (Wis.), 142. 
Uniontown (Pa.), 279-281, 2S4, 295. 
United States, supreme court on 
lead-mining claims, 331, 332. 



Index 



377 



VAN METRE, A. P., in lead 
mines, 326. 

Vaudreuil, Marquis de, governor 
of Canada, 217. 

Venango, Washington visits, 279. 

Verwyst, Rev. Chrysostom, " His- 
toric Sites on Chequamegon 
Bay," 236, 240, 243 ; I\Iissiofui?y 
Labors of Jhathers Marquette, 
Mefiard, and Aliouez, 244, 270- 
272. 

Vevay (Ind.), founded, 313. 

Vigo, Francis, French trader, 45, 
46, 313. 

Vinceniies, 12-14, 18; surrenders 
to Americans, 34 ; captured by 
Hainihon, 40-42 ; re-taken by 
Clark, 45-63, 67, 219; garrisoned, 
65 ; seat of government, 83 ; 
meridian of, 81, 93, 

Virginia, 5, 6, 10. 70, yi, 342 ; 
Clark in, i8, 19, 66, 67 ; captures 
Northwest, 33, 34, 44, 45 ; Ham- 
ilton sent 10,62-64; cedes terri- 
tory, 80, 89 ; occupies forks of 
Ohio, 288; manuscripts relating 
to, 346. 

TITABASHA, Sioux chief, 187, 

Waddam's Grove (111.), 161. 
Wakefield, John A., History of 

Black Hawk War, 144, 155, 176, 

180, 183, 191, 193. 
Walker, Gov. William, Wyandot 

chief, 344. 
Wallace, ]. ,Illitwis and Louisiana, 

305, 308. 
Wapello, Fox chief, 1 19. 
Ward, Capt. James, Kentucky 

pioneer, 343. 
Warren, Hooper, early editor, 

lOO. 

— , Lyman Marcus, early Wiscon- 
sin settler, 263-265, 267, 270. 

— , Richard, 263. 

— , Truman Abraham, early Wis- 
consin settler, 263, 264. 

— , William Whipple, 264, 265 ; 
" History of Ojibways," 233, 240, 
258, 259, 261, 262. 

" Warrior," Mississippi steamer, 
186-188, 191, 197. 

Wars, French and Fox, 249; French 
and Indian, 288 ; Pontiac's, 259 ; 
Lord Dunmore's, 6, 7, 11, 71; 
Revolutionary, 3, 5, 7, 14, 65, 
66, 219, 336, 337, 354; with 



Wars, French and Fox (continued). 
Creeks, 343 ; of 1812-15, 119, 122, 
131, 141, 221, 224, 262, 314, 337, 
345 ; Black Hawk, 115-200. 

Washburn (Wis.), 236, 273. 

Washburne, E. B., 100, lor, 164, 
307 ; Edwards Papers, 325. 

Washington, George, 11 ; in French 
and Indian War, 279, 280, 285, 
286, 288, 292, 293, 295 ; scores 
Hamilton, 63 ; ends Genet's ex- 
pedition, 70; proposes Western 
States, 75, 76. 

— , proposed State of, 77, 78. 

— City, 69, 78, 120, 194. 

— Springs (Pa.), 282, 293 
Watertown (Wis.\ 174. 
Waubojeeg, Chippewa chief, 260. 
Wayne, Anthony, 224, 350. 
Weatherford, Creek cliief, 338. 
West Augusta (Va.), Clark recruits 

in, 20. 

Wetzels, Kentucky pioneers, 28, 
343, 345i 350- 

Wheeler, Edward P., authority on 
La Pointe, 233, 236. 

— , Rev. Leonard Hemenway, Wis- 
consin missionary, 268, 269. 

Wheeling (W. Va.), 22, 28. 

White, Hugh L., pioneer, 340. 

— Cloud ( Prophet), Winnebago 
chief, 126-129, 132, 133, 139, 140, 
143. 193 ; village of, 140, 144, 147, 
188, 194. 

— Crane, Chippewa chief, 261. 

— Crow (Kaukishkaka), Winne- 
bago chief, 160, 163, 164, 168- 
170, 172. 

— Fisher. See Waubojeeg. 
Whiteman, Gen. Benjamin, Ohio 

pioneer, 343. 

White Oak Springs (Wis.), 142. 

Whiteside, Gen. Samuel, in Black 
Hawk VVar, 145-147, 156, 158. 

Whitesides County (111.), 106. 

Whilley, William, Kentucky pio- 
neer, 350. 

Whittlesey's Creek (Wis.), 236. 

Wilburn (111.), 142, 165. 

Williams, Capt. John, in Clark's 
campaign, 61. 

— , M. C., Old Mission Church 
of Mackinac Island, 228. 

Williamsburg (Va.), 34, 63. 

' ' Willing,' ' Clark's galley, 46,47, 5 1. 

Wilson, , fur-trader, 227. 

Winchell, Newton H., Geological 
Survey of Minnesota, 301. 



378 Essays i7t Western History 



Wingville (Wis.), 142. 

Winnebago County (Ill.)> 106. 

— Indians, habitat, 9, 39, 127, 173, 
318; language of, 182, 197; in 
War of 18 12-15, 314, in Black 
Hawk War, 128, 129, 139, 148, 
154, 159, 163, 166-175, 180, 182, 
187, 188, 199, 200 ; capture Black 
Hawk, 193, 194 ; agency of, 322 ; 
claims of, 325. 

Winnipeg countiy, 232. 

Winona (Minn.), 187. 

Winsor, Justin, criticises Draper, 
354 ; Cartier to Frontenac, 305 ; 
History of A merica^ 306. 

Winter, , early Illinois settler, 

Wiota(Wis.), 142, 168. 

Wisconsin, topography, 232 ; In- 
dians of, 8, 65, 209, 210, 227. 
244, 245, 250, 256, 300 ; under 
French regime, 12, 207, 231, 233 ; 
under British regime, 3, 39, 40, 
219; organized as territory, 99, 
loi, 105, no; State formed, 108; 
legislature of, 106 -no; boun- 
daries of, 92, 93, 98, 102, 104, 



Wisconsin {continued.^ 

105, 107-110, 236, 247; in Black 
Hawk War, 136, 142, 162-200; 
missions in, 242-247, 249, 265- 
273; University of, 177, 354; 
Historical Society, 121, 194, 235, 
352, 353; library of, 335, 345. 
353 ; Collections, 4, 78, loi, m, 
122, 135, 136, 144, 159, 161, 163, 
164, 172, 175, 181, 184, 1S6, 193, 
207-209, 226, 233, 234, 236, 249, 
253, 258, 265, 268, 272, 300, 302, 
303, 314, 316, 322, 323, 326,327, 
329, 33o> 353 ; Proceedings, 225, 
255- 

— Heights, battle of, 179-181, 184, 
197, 199. 

Withers, Alexander S., border his- 
torian, 339. 

Worthington, Capt. Edward, in 
Clark's campaign, 61, 62. 

Woodbridge, Adj. W. W.,in Black 
Hawk War, 174. 

Wyandot Indians. See Hurons. 

YELLOW BANKS, 139. i55, 
162, 192. 



Companion volume to " Down Historic JVaterways " 

On the Storied Ohio 

AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE OF A THOUSAND 
MILES IN A SKIFF, FROM REDSTONE TO CAIRO 



Being a nenv and renjised edition of '■^Afloat on the Ohio,^" 
njjith ne^w Preface and full-page illustrations from photographs 



THIS trip was undertaken by Mr. Thwaites 
some years ago, with the idea of gathering 
local color for his studies of Western history. The 
Ohio River was an important factor in the devel- 
opment of the West. He therefore wished to know 
intimately the great waterway in its various phases, 
and there seemed no better way than to make the 
pilgrimage as nearly as possible in the manner of 
the pioneer canoeist or flat-boatman himself. The 
voyage is described with much charm and humor, 
and with a constant realization of the historical 
traditions on every side. 

For the better understanding of these references 
the author has added a brief sketch of the settle- 
ment of the Ohio Valley. 

A selected list of journals of previous travellers 
has also been added. 



Uniform njjith " Do^wn Historic ff^ateravajs^' and '< Ho^iv 
George Rogers Clark IVon the Northwest 
i2mo. 300 pages, $1.20 net 

A. C. McCLURG & CO., Publishers 



